Jean Ross is a senior fellow at American Progress, where she focuses on tax and fiscal policy issues.
Prior to joining American Progress, she served as a program officer at several national foundations, managing fiscal and economic policy portfolios, and was the principal of Jean Ross Policy | Strategy, a consulting firm that develops effective policy campaigns and builds strong organizations to lead them. From 1995 to March 2012, she served as the first executive director of the California Budget Project, a nationally respected budget and policy organization (renamed the California Budget and Policy Center in 2015). Ross has also worked as staff to the California State Assembly’s Revenue and Taxation and Human Services Committees and as assistant research director of the Service Employees International Union, where she coordinated the union’s research on fiscal and labor market policies.
Ross’ areas of expertise include policy analysis and development, strategic communications, network building, and organizational development. She received a Master of City Planning with an emphasis on regional economics from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and a bachelor’s from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ross was named the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by UCB’s College of Environmental Design and was a senior fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Luskin School of Public Affairs in 2000-2001. She has published numerous articles, opinion pieces, and policy reports, and her work has been published by The New York Times, Berkeley Public Policy Press, National Academies Press, Los Angeles Times, and other publications.