john a. powell

Executive Director

The Institute on Race & Poverty was established in 1993 by john a. powell, former national legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union and current professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School. john has written extensively on the intersections of race and poverty and how they affect U.S. society. He speaks throughout the country on related issues, including the benefits of regionalism, urban problems associated with sprawl, the negative effects of concentrated poverty, and issues associated with welfare reform. He is the editor of Dividing the Nation: Housing and Desegregation, and co-editor of The Rights of Racial Minorities: The Basic ACLU Guide to Racial Minority Rights.

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Gavin Kearney

Director of Research and Programs

Gavin oversees Institute research projects. He was a primary researcher on IRP's McKnight Report, the National Urban Survey and The Minneapolis Foundation's Building Better Futures mapping project and report. He is co-editor of a forthcoming anthology, In Pursuit of a Dream Deferred: Linking Housing and Education Policy, which will be published by Lang Publishing. Gavin has a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Lynn Nelson

Public Education Director

Lynn is in charge of public education activities. She oversees communications from the Institute, including a quarterly newsletter, the Web site and media relations. Lynn was a communications consultant for five years. Prior to that she was director of public relations for IDS Financial Services, now American Express Financial Advisors in Minneapolis. She has a master's in social policy from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. She is an adjunct professor of public relations at the U of M School of Journalism.

Julie Nielsen

Director of Development and Administration

Julie is in charge of fund raising and staff coordination and management for IRP. Previously she spent five years working in Independent School District 196 coordinating a program in American Indian education and supporting other diversity-related initiatives such as grant writing, program development and staff development. She recently completed course work for her master's degree in educational policy and administration, with an emphasis on evaluation studies and policy research from the University of Minnesota.

Roger A. Clay, Jr.

Senior Fellow

Roger is a senior fellow focusing on developing broad-based approaches to civil rights, housing, and economic challenges undermining the health of our urban regions. For more then thirty years he has worked and spoken throughout the country on housing, urban development and discrimination issues facing low- income minority communities. He is currently working on ongoing efforts on the issues of race and poverty as they effect housing and other opportunities in the Chicago region. He is also leading the IRP strategic planning process. Before coming to the Institute, Roger was Vice President of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), a national nonprofit whose mission is to promote permanent housing with services for disabled people at risk of being homeless. Prior to CSH, Roger practiced law for over twenty years, representing primarily public agencies and nonprofit organizations. Roger received his B.A. from Stanford University, M.S.W. from UCLA, and his J.D. from University of California at Berkeley. 

Vina Kay

Senior Researcher

Vina oversees research projects at IRP. She is currently working on the Racial Justice and Regional Equity project. She was formerly a Legal Fellow at IRP in 1995-1996 and returned to Minneapolis and IRP after a few years living in San Francisco. Vina has a B.A. from Carleton College and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Susie Hartigan

Research Fellow

Susie is a research fellow currently working on criminal justice system issues. She recently authored the Report of Traffic Stop Data Collected by the Saint Paul Police Department April 15 through December 15, 2000. Before joining IRP, Susie was a staff attorney for the Alaska Court of Appeals. Susie has a law degree from the University of Minnesota.

Lindsay R. Jones

Research Fellow

Lindsay is a fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty and an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. His research and work at the Institute focuses on the political economy of structural social exclusion in the era of globalization. He teaches a seminar at the law school on bias in the law. Prior to joining the Institute, he was the Assistant Executive Director and Director of Advocacy for Legal Services of North Carolina. He was a founding partner in the civil rights law firm of Jones and Kushner, and the founder and former Executive Director of the Community Law Center, a non profit community development law firm. He received his juris doctorate from the University of Minnesota.

S.P. Udayakumar

Research Fellow

S.P. or Kumar, as he is called by associates, is a research associate and co-director of programs. He has a master's degree in International Peace Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Science. His research interests include human marginalization, globalization, peace, and futures studies. His numerous book chapters and articles include "The Futures of the Poor," "Mapping the Futures of the Poor" and "The Free Trade Frenzy." He recently researched and wrote a report on concentrated poverty entitled "Concentrated Poverty: Causes, Effects and Solutions."

Eric Myott

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist

Eric is in charge of research and mapping in developing IRP opportunity maps. Previously he worked on Neighborhood Planning for Community Revitalization and Sustainable Lakes Projects, as well as on projects for St. Paul Water Utility Maps and Engineering. He has a bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul.

Ken Bechtel

Office Manager

Ken coordinates the activities of the institute and is john powell's administrative assistant. He was formerly the office manager for Mani-Graphics in Madison, Wis. He received his associate degree from Somerset City College in New Jersey.