I HAVE NOT DONE THIS ALONE. MY GREATEST ASSET IS THE people around me and my partnerships. I stand on broad and strong shoulders. I am grateful to my friends, colleagues, and editors, who were instrumental in all phases of this project. In many ways this book reflects the efforts of many partnerships and teams over the past decade. This solitary book-writing venture puts ideas worked out together into words. I appear as the sole author where dozens could also be listed on the cover.
It’s a singular and humbling honor to direct the Institute on Assets and Social Policy. Hannah Thomas, Janet Boguslaw, Tatjana Meschede, Sandy Venner, Alexis Mann, Sara Chaganti, Faith Paul, Becca Loya, Jessica Santos, Charity Adams, and Laura Sullivan were Team One throughout this entire project and represent the collective “we” and “I” in the text. Many ideas were developed in the team process of our research and production of dozens of papers and briefs.
The reader sees the presentation; discovery involved a fully engaged team. Virtually every use of the word “I” in the text should really be “we,” because the pronoun refers to various sets of partners and teams. I read interview transcripts many times, listened to the audio recordings, supervised the coding, and visited many of the interview and neighborhood locations. But I did not conduct the interviews; four fabulous and talented members of the Leveraging Mobility Project team did. Hannah Thomas led the Boston team, which included Amy Booxbaum; Robin Moore-Chambers anchored the St. Louis interviewers, which included Sarah Myers, Tanya Perry, and Kenneth Cattage; in Los Angeles Chinyere Usuji acted as leader with interview help from William Rosales. Special thanks to Hannah Thomas, who helped conceive the project and managed it for several years; Alexis Mann brought it to conclusion with skilled acumen and help from Sara Chaganti, Alexandra Bastien, Allison Stagg, Sunny Thomas, and Alicia Atkinson.
The Experts of Color Network family includes some of the most amazing, talented, supportive, engaged difference makers. They include Kilolo Kijakazi, Darrick Hamilton, Sandy Darity, Anne Price, Maya Rockeymoore, Jim Carr, Dedrick Asante-Muhammed, Gabriela Sandoval, Barbara Robles, jon powell, Angela Glover Blackwell, Benita Melton, Gary Cunningham, and Bill Spriggs. In discussions, meetings, strategizing, and action, the work of this family is central to my thinking and the development of this book.
The Levi Strauss, Annie E. Casey, and Open Society Foundations graciously and generously funded important aspects of this work; as important, they were engaged partners. The Ford Foundation was the first and primary investor in the grand endeavor. While the foundation provided the resources, Kilolo Kijakazi’s vision, support, and strategic wisdom were indispensable in our thinking about how to make the greatest impact. I had the distinct pleasure of working closely with some of the best and strategically savviest policy organizations—PolicyLink, Insight, and Dēmos. Heather McGhee, Tamara Draut, Joe Brooks, Alexandra Bastien, and Anne Price are great leaders and wonderful partners.
The amazing Basic Books team did a superb job. The outstanding editorial guidance of Brian Distelberg, Brandon Proia, and Alex Littlefeld helped develop ideas and raw drafts into an accessible and exciting manuscript. The exquisite copyediting of Collin Tracy and Jen Kelland makes me look like a writer. Special thanks to my agent, Geri Thoma at Writers House, for her wisdom and guidance throughout the whole process, from initial book idea to publisher to marketing.
I imposed the low moments, head in the clouds, and time away from family on Ruth Birnberg and Izak Shapiro. As always, their love and encouragement made this a better book; more importantly, they make my life fuller.
If I do one thing well, it is choosing partners.