I’m Mark Zuckerman, President of the Foundation of the Century, and This Is How I Work

The Century Foundation turns one century this year . A progressive think tank shaped US history by helping to establish the SEC and advising on welfare, urbanization, fair elections, workers’ rights, counter terrorism, and civil liberties. We spoke with Foundation President Mark Zuckerman about how to manage the Foundation in the 21st century and find young political leaders for the new Next100 Startup Research Center.

Name: Mark Zuckerman Location: New York Current location: President of the Century Foundation Current computer: Lenovo PC (at work); Apple laptop (at home) Current mobile device: iPhone 8 One word that best describes how you work: Collaborate

First of all, tell us a little about your past and how you got where you are now.

I began my career as a VISTA volunteer in the late 1970s in Burleigh, Idaho, working as a community organizer in predominantly Hispanic areas. At that time, the Hispanic community in Burleigh faced major challenges in terms of accessing quality health care, getting a good education, being able to feed oneself with food, acquiring the skills to get a well-paid job, etc. In addition, many felt excluded from the larger (and whiter) Burleigh community and often faced hostility and discrimination based on their ethnicity. My role as an organizer has been to help overcome these obstacles – empower Hispanic families, give them a stronger voice in their community, and help them better protect themselves and their interests.

Through this experience, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible power that the federal government has when it comes to providing critical – and sometimes life-saving – protection to Americans. Many of the families I have worked with relied on federal government support for their housing (under Section 8), medical care (through Medicaid and the Hill-Burton Act), and nutrition. This experience has convinced me of the importance of a strong social safety net. It made me want to devote myself and my life to helping the most vulnerable of us and to provide ongoing support for people who work hard but are still struggling to get ahead.

After Burleigh, I went to law school to gain the technical skills and training to become an effective lawyer, and then embarked on what now amounts to a nearly four-year career in public policy, serving in state legislatures, the U.S. Congress and more recently. in the Obama administration as deputy director of the Council on Domestic Policy. I now head one of the oldest national policy think tanks, which turns 100 this year.

What are the main responsibilities in your job and what do you supervise?

As President, my primary responsibility is to advance the Century Foundation’s mission of bridging inequalities and empowering across the country. Much of my work focuses directly on this: working with colleagues to help make transformative change and promote policies that dramatically improve people’s lives. This means everything from expanding educational opportunities (from childcare to higher education), strengthening the labor movement and helping working families thrive, ensuring universal access to high-quality, affordable health care, and promoting peace and security in the Middle East. …

Tell us about a recent work day.

One of my favorite things to do every day is meeting our political partners, mostly young people with amazing energy, determination and intelligence. TCF people are truly integral to our work and the impact we make. They do much more than just help fellows with research projects: they write their own reports and publish their own analysis, testify before government agencies and advise elected officials, advocate for Capitol Hill, and more. They bring new and unique perspectives on how to get things done and how to bring about change. Meeting, learning, and strategizing is one of the best parts of the job.

For many days I will be participating in one of TCF’s many community programs and events, either here in New York, Washington DC (where our second office is located), or on the road (for example, we recently completed a tour of the Industrial Center. focused on revitalizing production communities). I am very proud of TCF’s public events as I believe they are doing a good job of bridging the scholarship-practice gap by bringing together different thinkers and genuinely interested in their participation (which cannot be said for all think tank events!). We have a regular series with NYU Wagner called The Debate of the Century , for example, which features leading experts discussing – thoughtfully, informed and respectfully – some of the most important national policy issues of our time. We’ve had debates with people like Edward Snowden and Farid Zakaria on topics ranging from school segregation to congestion pricing, and the series has had several followers in New York.

Finally, I usually spend part of the day meeting with people outside the TCF – be they politicians, other research organizations and think tanks, advocacy groups, community leaders, sponsors, etc. I see research and policy development as a collective effort and that I spend a significant portion of my time working with others to strategize on how to best use our collective resources and energies to achieve political impact. One of the challenges of running a national think tank is being aware of everything that happens in the world of politics, politics and research. So I try to set aside time each day to stay in the know, whether it means reading a new study recently published by a similar organization, or even just reading a newspaper.

What apps, gadgets or tools can’t you live without?

My kids are still in their teens, so I think Venmo is absolutely essential, and so are they. Also a coffee maker.

How is your workplace arranged?

TCF is headquartered in lower Manhattan and one of the things I love the most about my office is the clear view from my desk of Ellis Island where my great-grandparents came to start a new life for my family at the end 19th century. The rest of my office is pretty standard: a workstation with two monitors, which I often turn into a standing desk; TV, usually with MSNBC on in the background at low volume; round table for negotiations in the corner; hung pictures of family, friends, and old colleagues (including with President Obama and former Congressman George Miller); and, as is customary in think tanks, there are many books along the walls, some more wobbly than others.

What’s your favorite shortcut or hack?

My favorite shortcut – literally and figuratively – is the best community bike rental program in the country: Citi Bike in New York. I confess I’m a bit biased: my wife Polly Trottenberg is the New York City Transportation Commissioner and she has done an incredible job to expand Citi Bike and make city cycling easier and safer. So we are both big fans of Citi Bike and use it often for city trips.

Tell us about an interesting, unusual, or challenging process you have at work.

Every year since I became president, Polly and I have invited all TCF members from across the country to our home in Brooklyn for the TCF’s annual holiday party. It’s always a fun night full of good food and drinks; an increasingly intense game of White Elephant (think Secret Santa, but with the ability to steal other people’s gifts); my speech, which always has ten anecdotes about the events of the past year at TCF (which appear with varying degrees of success); and even a karaoke round or two (which sometimes results in three or four at the nearest bar, usually when the hosts get tired). As TCF continues to grow in size, I’m not sure how many more years I will be able to party at our house. I haven’t decided if this is good or bad.

How to recharge or relax?

My wife Polly and I love to walk in the national parks. We just got back from a 5 day trek to the Great Smoky Mountains and it was lovely.

What’s your favorite side project?

To celebrate TCF’s 100th anniversary this year, we decided to go pretty wide and launched a new independent “pop-up” think tank called Next100 . Next100’s vision is to empower a new generation of policy leaders and place people not normally involved in policy making as the driving force behind policy change. This is a rather unique experiment that, as far as I know, has no precedent elsewhere. We’re investing heavily in eight new leaders and giving them full-time, paid jobs in New York for the next two years. They will work on issues of greatest concern to them, direct their research programs, and try to make policy changes ahead of the 2020 elections.

What are you reading now or what do you recommend?

TCF has a quarterly employee book club, and this week we just finished Tara Westover’s Training , which was a vivid memory and testament to the transformative power of education. I also recently read David McCullough’s Pioneers , which talks about the settlement of the Northwest United States. I highly recommend both books.

What kind of music do you listen to?

I love classic rock. I’m a big fan of Joan Baez, Jackson Brown, The Boss, Cranberries, Eagles, Dylan, Zeppelin – artists like that.

Who else would you like to see to answer these questions?

My wife is Polly. She taught me a lot about how to be a good leader and strategist.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Treat people decently because it’s the right thing to do and it pays off in every way.

What problem are you still trying to solve?

I work hard to get rid of the little things of the day – the Twitter hustle and bustle and constant crises that seem to shape our politics today – and focus more on the big picture to do 3-year forward planning. – and 6 and 12 months in advance. I’m a political junkie, so I have to admit it’s hard at times not to get caught in the maelstrom of round-the-clock cable news.

But one of the nice things about working in a think tank – and in fact, one of the responsibilities of a think tank, as I understand it, is that we are able to rise above the day-to-day political struggle. We can step back some distance and focus on laying the groundwork for policy change in the future , sometimes in two, five, or even ten years, in the same way that people put out fires all day long. Of course, this kind of forward planning is easier said than done. But it’s incredibly important to the success of our work, and I try very hard to prioritize.