Tonantzin Carmona

Tonantzin Carmona is a fellow at Brookings Metro who focuses on wealth and inequality, financial and emerging technologies, and state and local policy implementation. She has been featured in Bloomberg, The Washington Post, CNN, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Axios, Fortune, Bloomberg Tax, Associated Press, NPR Marketplace, Quartz, TechCrunch, Tech Monitor, and Crain’s Chicago Business.   

Carmona’s professional background spans roles in public policy, communications, politics, and philanthropy. She previously served as special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House National Economic Council, as well as senior advisor at the Department of the Treasury’s Inflation Reduction Act Implementation Office. She has also championed federal policies as the Illinois political director for the 2020 presidential campaign of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and as Sen. Warren’s deputy press secretary on Capitol Hill. 

At the local level, Carmona spearheaded several citywide initiatives. As chief of policy for the Chicago City Clerk, Carmona led the Chicago Fines, Fees, and Access Collaborative, which culminated in significant reforms of the city’s regressive public finance policies. Additionally, she launched Chicago’s municipal ID card, which simultaneously serves as a government-issued ID, transit pass, and library card, while ensuring substantial data privacy protections for applicants. As director of the Office of New Americans at the Chicago mayor’s office, she led the development of several immigrant integration policies, including the city’s first language access ordinance. Furthermore, in her role as deputy policy director at the mayor’s office, she led the City-County Collaboration, which identified $70 million in savings and new revenue sources.  

Carmona holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA in political science from Northwestern University.