AEI Launches the American Dream Initiative

4-Year Effort to Produce Research on Upward Mobility; Former Joint Economic Committee Staff Director Kevin Corinth to Join New Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Washington, DC (January 10, 2023)—American Enterprise Institute (AEI) President Robert Doar today announced the American Dream Initiative—an ambitious four-year effort designed to increase opportunity and upward mobility for all Americans. The initiative will produce research focused on poverty alleviation, workforce development, vocational education, housing and urban policy, and the revitalization of key institutions.

“The American Dream Initiative is one of the most ambitious projects AEI has ever undertaken,” said Doar. “Through our research, outreach, and communications capabilities, AEI will provide policymakers and community leaders with the actionable, data-driven ideas they need to ensure that the promise of the American dream is possible for future generations.”

As part of this initiative, AEI is launching a new Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility, led by AEI Senior Fellow Scott Winship. Joining him as deputy director of the center will be Kevin Corinth, who served as staff director of the Joint Economic Committee in Congress and chief economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers at the White House.

The center will study expanding pathways to intergenerational mobility, with a special focus on equipping low-income Americans to thrive in a changing labor market. With poverty and child poverty at historically low levels, the center will focus on stagnation in upward mobility for the most disadvantaged children. Scholars working on the project will also highlight existing state and local programs that are increasing upward mobility and can be replicated.

“I am honored to lead the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at AEI and am thrilled that Kevin Corinth will join the team,” said Winship. “The center will recognize the limits of federal policy and the strengths of markets and the American economy, while acknowledging that we must help more Americans benefit from those strengths. It will also build on the rich tradition at AEI concerned with rebuilding institutions of civil society.”

Supported by a major media and government relations effort, the American Dream Initiative will equip key policymakers and community leaders with actionable ideas and policy proposals that strengthen the American economy and promote upward mobility. Core to the initiative is a significant outreach and communications effort, including the launch of the Civic Renewal Fellowship, an intensive program for leaders across the country to learn about civil discourse, refine their leadership skills, build relationships, and strengthen core institutions in their communities.

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AEI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization where scholars work to expand liberty, increase individual opportunity, and strengthen free enterprise.