LND Team, May 2012
Thompson, Elrick, Potts, Ives, Walker, Brechin, Kinsey, Smith, Lee

The Living New Deal is based at the University of California, Berkeley, but relies on the participation of team members around the country (see below)

Our Advisory Board members are high-profile figures who believe in the New Deal idea as both a great legacy in American life and a model for public spirited action today.

William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.  Bill Deverell is Professor of History at University of Southern California and author of several books, including Whitewashed Adobe and Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad and editor of several more, such as Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s and California Progressivism.

Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. Robert Reich is a former United States Secretary of Labor and author of several books, including Beyond Outrage, Tales of a New America, Supercapitalism and The Work of Nations.

Janet Roosevelt Katten is the youngest daughter of G. Hall Roosevelt (Eleanor Roosevelt’s brother) and Dorothy Kemp Roosevelt. As a child, she was a guest of her aunt and uncle’s at the White House and at Val-Kill. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University, is the author of more than a dozen books on American cities, race relations and government, most recently Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2013).

Christina Romer is the Class of 1957 – Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. She was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers for the Obama administration from 2009-10, and is widely known for her research.

Peter Wiley, Chair of the Board, Wiley-Blackwell Publishers.  Peter Wiley is author of The National Trust Guide to San Francisco and Empires in the Sun.

LIVING NEW DEAL RESEARCH BOARD

Our Research Board consists of scholars and public intellectuals with expertise in New Deal history and preservation, who advise the Living New Deal team on directions in research and advocacy.

Robin Einhorn, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley.  Author of Property Rules and American Taxation, American Slavery.

Robert Leighninger, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University.  Author of Long Range Public Investment: The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal.

Sharon Musher, Associate Professor of History, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Her book manuscript, A New Deal for Art, examines the role of New Deal art in transforming society.

Joni M. Palmer, Ph.D, Independent Scholar and Cultural Planner, Creative Albuquerque.

Jason Scott Smith, Associate Professor of History, University of New Mexico. Author of Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933-1956.

Core Project Team Members:

IN BERKELEY & THE BAY AREA

DR. RICHARD WALKER     richardwalker@livingnewdeal.org

Richard Walker, Director of the Living New Deal, is professor emeritus of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught from 1975-2012.  He is co-author of The Capitalist Imperative (1989) and The New Social Economy (1992), and has written extensively on California, including The Conquest of Bread (2004) and The Country in the City (2007) – which received the Hal Rothman Prize in Western History. He is working on a book about the political economy of California from the Gold Rush to the Great Recession. He is well known as a public speaker on California.

DR. GRAY BRECHIN     graybrechin@livingnewdeal.org

Gray Brechin is Project Scholar for the Living New Deal and Vice-President of the National New Deal Preservation Association.  He is an historical geographer and author, who received a B.A. in History and Geography, an M.A. in Art History, and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. Gray is author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin (1999), considered a classic of urban studies. With photographer Robert Dawson, he published Farewell, Promised Land: Waking from the California Dream, which chronicles the Golden State’s declining environmental and social health. Gray is the founder of the Living New Deal, and he lectures around the country about the New Deal legacy.

RACHEL BRAHINSKY, Ph.D  rbrahinsky@berkeley.edu

Hailing from a New Deal resettlement town (Roosevelt, NJ) Rachel Brahinsky is the Living New Deal’s Managing Director and Postdoctoral Fellow. She completed her doctorate at UC Berkeley in Geography, where her Ph.D research focused on the history of racial politics and urban development in Southeast San Francisco. She continues to research and write about race, gender and politics in the American city, with an emphasis on California. Prior to her graduate work, Rachel was a journalist, writing about homelessness, city planning, and urban politics. She also teaches at the University of San Francisco.

HARVEY SMITH     harveysmith@livingnewdeal.org

Harvey Smith is Project Advisor to the Living New Deal Project and president of the National New Deal Preservation Association. In 2010 Harvey was co-curator of “The American Scene: New Deal Art, 1935-1943,” at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, California. He has researched the impacts of New Deal public policy, including public infrastructure and social programs of the 1930s and 1940s. He received a B.A. in English and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked as a union carpenter, public health worker, radio journalist, horse rancher, and public school teacher.

YING LEE     yinglee@livingnewdeal.org

Ying Lee taught in the Berkeley Unified School District. She joined the politically progressive April Coalition and Berkeley Citizen Action and, as part of a that coalition, was elected to the Berkeley City Council in the 70’s. She joined Congressman Ronald V. Dellum’s staff in 1984. Upon Dellum’s retirement from Congress, she joined Congresswoman Barbara Lee as her Legislative Director. Ying retired in 2000. She works in the anti-war movement, as a Trustee for the Berkeley Public Library, and helps to raise her three grandchildren. She is an active member of Grandmothers for Peace. In 2012 the Berkeley Historical Society published Ying Lee: From Shanghai to Berkeley, An Oral History.

SHAINA POTTS     shainapotts@livingnewdeal.org

Shaina Potts is a doctoral student in Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the geography of finance, focusing on the intersection of finance, politics, and space. She is pursuing a dissertation on the relationship between transnational finance, state authority, and class structure in post-default Argentina.  She handles data entry and database management for the Living New Deal.

BEN HASS     benhass@livingnewdeal.org

Ben Hass is a web developer and interactive media specialist. Prior to working as a technology consultant, he received a B.S. in Art History and Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is responsible for the design and infrastructure of the Living New Deal website, map and database, and he serves as our webmaster.

TERRY DIGGS     terrydiggs@livingnewdeal.org

Terry Diggs is adjunct professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she teaches a seminar on Film and the Law about the social, political and economic significance of film narratives on the justice system. She has taught Criminal Procedure, Criminal Trial Advocacy and Trial Advocacy. She writes a regular column for American Lawyer Media and speaks extensively about the intersection of legal cases and culture.

SUSAN IVES   susanives@livingnewdeal.org

Susan Ives is communications advisor to the Living New Deal. She provides strategic communications to nonprofits, public agencies, philanthropies and social venture businesses. Her writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines and online. She holds a BA in Journalism from University of Michigan, an MA in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is a graduate of Coro Foundation. Susan has served as Vice President for Public Affairs at Trust for Public Land, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Environmental Affairs of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Communications Director for Planned Parenthood, and Media Officer at Sierra Club.

BARBARA BERNSTEIN  barbarabernstein@livingnewdeal.org

Barbara Bernstein is the Living New Deal’s Public Art Specialist. She founded the New Deal Art Registry, a “crowd-sourcing” web site that has collected photos and data about thousands of New Deal murals and sculptures around the country. Her interest in New Deal art goes back almost 40 years and she is thrilled that this great resource is finally being appreciated and protected. Before moving to California she uncovered much forgotten public art in Chicago. Her award-winning 1978 short film Silver Lining helped revive interest in the Federal Art Project. She has been a software company executive and technical writer, and was for many years a columnist for Software Magazine. Barbara is a graduate of the University of Chicago.

DARIN JENSEN

Darin Jensen is cartography advisor to the Living New Deal.  He is the Department Cartographer and a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley, teaching cartography and GIS courses.  He has an arts background and brings his fine arts sensibilities to map design and production in the service of the map as artifact and narrative device.  Jensen has published two atlases, Mission Possible: A Neighborhood Atlas and Food: An Atlas.  He is currently a Masters of Fine Arts Candidate at Mills College studying Creative Nonfiction Writing.

CLAIRE SARRAILLE and KELLY MOELY

Claire and Kelly are the Living New Deal’s cartography interns. Claire Sarraillé is an alumnus of UC Berkeley’s Geography Department. She was a contributing cartographer to Mission Possible: A Neighborhood Atlas. Kelly Moely is currently completing her BA in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography. She loves travel and is looking forward to expanding her GIS and cartography skills with the Living New Deal.

JOHN ELRICK

John Elrick is a doctoral student in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is working on his dissertation on the history of land development and property capital in 19th century San Francisco.  He assists us with documenting New Deal sites for the national database and map.

A professor of social work at the University of Mississippi, Susan Allen has been contributing to the Living New Deal through our site submission page for some time. She recently came on board as a research associate, and is particularly focused on murals and other New Deal sites in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. Susan writes a regular column for a Mississippi historic preservation blog under the pen name Suzassippi.

JOHN H. HOCTOR

EVAN KALISH

Evan Kalish is a Living New Deal Research Associate based in New York City, who has done extensive work photographing Post Offices around the country, including many New Deal buildings and murals.  His project, Going Postal: A photo journal of post offices and places, has documented almost 5,000 post offices in 49 states.  He is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, with degrees in Entrepreneurship and Urban Spatial Analytics.

BRENT McKEE   brentmckee@livingnewdeal.org

Brent McKee, based in Maryland, is the Living New Deal Director of Mid-Atlantic Research. Brent has a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland- Baltimore County and is working toward a Master’s Degree in History from American Public University.  He serves on the board of the National New Deal Preservation Association and has created a website and newsletter to help preserve the history of the WPA.  Prior to catching the New Deal bug, Brent managed a Maryland state program for inmates and served in Americorps.

SAMUEL J. REDMAN, Ph.D  samredman@livingnewdeal.org

ERIN TERBEEK, MA

Erin TerBeek is the Living New Deal’s Wisconsin Research Associate.  She completed her MA in Public History and Museum Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she focused on the New Deal, WWII propaganda posters, and Victory Gardens.  Erin writes a local history column for the Shepherd Express, a Milwaukee newspaper, where she often writes about New Deal history in articles like this one.

The National New Deal Preservation Association (NNDPA), based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the longest standing group working to preserve the legacy of the New Deal, especially in the Southwest.  Kathy Flynn is founder and Executive Director; Harvey Smith is President of the NNDPA and several members of our team are now or have been on the board of directors.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

WE WANT YOUR GROUP HERE

Historical Societies • Preservation Societies • CCC Alumni Groups

PAST CONTRIBUTORS

Read about some of the many people who have contributed time and expertise to the Living New Deal on our project history page.