Xavier (Xav) de Souza Briggs is a senior fellow at Brookings Metro. He is also a senior advisor and co-founder of What Works Plus, a collaborative of philanthropic funders promoting equity and resilience through America’s generational investments in infrastructure and climate action. A former professor of urban planning and sociology at MIT and of public policy at Harvard, he has also served as associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and later vice president for inclusive economies and markets at the Ford Foundation. He led the foundation’s efforts to develop an actionable framework for tackling the drivers of inequality in our world, and also to build the field of impact investing and commit $1 billion of endowment assets, the largest-ever for a private foundation, for that purpose. Known for his wide range of interests and track record of building fields, his work at Brookings focuses on inclusive markets, good jobs, equitable climate action, and tangible ways to advance equity in the way government works. An award-winning educator and researcher, Xav's books include 'Moving to Opportunity' and 'Democracy as Problem Solving.' His views have appeared in Fortune, Fast Company, The New York Times, Boston Globe and other media. He serves on the board of JUST Capital, Demos and other nonprofit organizations.
