Hugh B. Price, Former National Urban League President, Joins Brookings

Hugh B. Price, former president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League, will join the Brookings Institution on February 1, 2006 as a senior fellow, Brookings president Strobe Talbott announced today.

At Brookings, Price will use his experience as an innovator in education programs to focus on various issues involving equal opportunity, nonprofit governance, K-12 education, criminal justice, and civil rights. He will work closely with the Brookings Economic Studies program to further public policy in these subject areas.

“Hugh brings to Brookings a record of stellar leadership,” said Isabel Sawhill, vice president and director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. “His many notable achievements and past experiences in journalism, the foundation world, and nonprofit organizations will greatly inform our work here.”

At the Urban League, Price led the way in tripling the League’s endowment. He also restructured and strengthened its board of directors and staff, defined a new mission and strategic vision for the 21st century; conceived and launched the League’s historic Campaign for African-American Achievement. In addition he established the League’s research and policy center, known as the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality; revived Opportunity, the League’s landmark magazine; and opened the League’s new headquarters on Wall Street in New York City.

“For the last forty years I have dedicated my life to education: equal rights, welfare, criminal justice and funding of public education,” said Price. “I am thrilled with the opportunity to come to Brookings.”

Before joining the League, Price was vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1988 to 1994 where he focused on improving domestic investments in education for at-risk youth and increasing opportunities for people of color. He also served for six years as senior vice president of WNET/Thirteen in New York, the nation’s largest public television station. Falling back on his journalist experience as a past board member at the New York Times, he is also the author of two books, Achievement Matters: Getting Your Child The Best Education Possible, and Destination: The American Dream.

Price holds a law degree from Yale University and honorary degrees from Amherst College, and Indiana University. He has received the Medal of Honor from Yale Law School, the President’s Medal from Hunter College, and other honorary degrees also from Yale, as well as many other colleges and universities.

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