Alexandra Thornton

Senior Director, Financial Regulation

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Alexandra Thornton is the senior director of financial regulation for Inclusive Economy at American Progress.

Before joining American Progress, Thornton was the executive vice president for policy, planning, and business affairs at the Jane Goodall Institute, where she advised the founder on international conservation issues and functioned as the institute’s general counsel. Previously, she was the executive director of a tax and economic policy nonprofit that focused on environmental taxation issues.

Thornton moved to the nonprofit world after spending nearly a decade as tax policy adviser to a U.S. senator who served on the Senate Finance Committee. In that position, she successfully shepherded the senator’s legislative initiatives through nine major tax and budget bills and also provided counsel on trade, banking, and securities issues.

Thornton began her career as a litigator practicing in Washington, D.C. She earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the College of William and Mary.

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How To Make Corporate Boards More Diverse Report
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 01: Businessmen and shoppers walk along Madison Avenue, one of Manhattan's premier shopping and residential streets on November 1, 2011 in New York City. According to a new Census Bureau report, income inequality is greater in New York State and in the New York City region than in any other state or metropolitan area in the country. The report found that in three Manhattan neighborhoods, the Upper East and West Sides and Greenwich Village, the top 5 percent of households make an average of over $1 million. Inequality in America has become a campaign issue following the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the continued high nationwide unemployment rate.  (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

How To Make Corporate Boards More Diverse

Race and gender diversity on corporate boards is unacceptably low, but better corporate practices and SEC engagement could help accelerate progress toward more diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Alexandra Thornton, Anjunae Chandran

It’s Time for a Workforce Disclosure Reset Report
Workers at a furniture manufacturer sew personal protective equipment (PPE) on March 30, 2020, in Illinois. (Getty/Scott Olson)

It’s Time for a Workforce Disclosure Reset

The current moment demands that the SEC add specific human capital metrics to its current disclosure regime to provide investors, other market participants, and the public reliable, consistent, and comparable information about companies’ management of their workers.

Alexandra Thornton, Caius Z. Willingham

The SEC Has Broad Authority To Require Climate and Other ESG Disclosures Report

The SEC Has Broad Authority To Require Climate and Other ESG Disclosures

Increasing demand for companies to provide enhanced disclosures on climate-related and other environmental, social, and governance matters has raised questions about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s authority to require disclosures. That authority is broad and not limited to materiality.

The SEC’s Time To Act Report
A flag flies outside of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission building in Washington, D.C., July 2020.

The SEC’s Time To Act

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should begin using its authority to mandate climate-related disclosures in order to address climate-related risks to investors, the economy, and the public.

Alexandra Thornton, Andy Green

Modernizing the Social Contract With Investment Fiduciaries Report

Modernizing the Social Contract With Investment Fiduciaries

To help build a new social contract among companies, investors, workers, and society, regulators should modernize the fiduciary rules governing investment advisers and retirement plan fiduciaries to ensure that they disclose how they handle environmental, social, and governance considerations.

Why All Workers Should Be Able To Deduct Union Dues Report
Leadership shake hands during union contract negotiations in Detroit, July 2015. (Leadership shake hands during union contract negotiations in Detroit, July 2015.)

Why All Workers Should Be Able To Deduct Union Dues

In order to increase tax fairness for workers, the federal government should immediately restore the tax deduction for union dues and make it available for all workers who support their unions, not just those who itemize.

Alexandra Thornton

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