Rick McGahey (PhD, Economics, New School for Social Research) is a Senior Fellow at the Schwartz Center and the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy. Before that, he was a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the New School’s Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, where he also served as a Faculty Fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. McGahey has worked in academia, philanthropy, the private sector, and government at all levels—federal, state, and local—and is a nationally recognized expert on urban and regional economic development, program evaluation, retirement policy, and workforce development.
At the Ford Foundation, McGahey was the Director of Impact Assessment, developing and implementing assessments to help the Foundation achieve greater impact, and also was a Program Officer focusing on economic and workforce development emphasizing equity and community development for economic, social, and environmental goals. Before joining Ford, he was a Managing Vice President at Abt Associates, a consulting, research and evaluation firm where he directed work on education, childhood development, social welfare, and workforce development, responsible for an annual portfolio of over $20 million in evaluation grants and contracts.
McGahey also has extensive experience in the public sector. During President Clinton’s second term, he served as Assistant Secretary for Policy, and later for Pension and Welfare Benefits, at the U.S. Department of Labor under Secretary Alexis Herman. He also served as Executive Director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and as Economic Policy Advisor for Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). At the state and local level, McGahey was Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Research for the New York State Department of Economic Development and Deputy Comptroller for Policy and Management for the City of New York. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and has taught at The New School, New York University, John Jay College, and the George Washington University.
