Spencer Overton

Spencer Overton is the President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which was founded in 1970 and is America’s Black think tank. Spencer and the Joint Center team restructured the organization, and today its research shapes national discussions on the future of work in Black communities and congressional staff diversity. In addition to research, the Joint Center is focused on building systems, scaling, and strategically expanding into other areas that will shape the future of Black communities.

Spencer is also a tenured professor at GW Law School in Washington, DC, and is the author of a book and several academic articles, think tank reports, and popular commentaries on race and public policy. Spencer’s work on election commissions shaped the modern voter ID debate, resulted in Iowa restoring voting rights to 98,000 returning citizens, and moved more diverse states like South Carolina and Nevada to the beginning of the modern Democratic presidential primary process.

He held policy leadership roles on the 2007-2008 Obama presidential campaign and the Obama transition team. During the Obama Administration, Spencer served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy (the “think tank” of the Department of Justice), and as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

Spencer has also served on the boards of Dēmos and The American Constitution Society, practiced law at the firm Debevoise & Plimpton, clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Damon J. Keith, and graduated with honors from both Hampton University and Harvard Law School.