Heather Charisse McGhee (born June 6, 1980) is a New York Times bestselling author and policy advocate. She is a former president and currently a trustee emeritus of Demos, a non-profit progressive U.S. think tank.[2] McGhee is a regular contributor to NBC News and frequently appears as a guest and panelist on Meet the Press, All In with Chris Hayes, and Real Time with Bill Maher.[3][4][5][6]
Early life and education
Heather Charisse McGhee grew up in the South Side, Chicago and is the daughter of Gail C. Christopher and Earl J. McGhee.[5] In seventh grade, McGhee enrolled in The Bement School as a boarding student.[7] graduated from Milton Academy in 1997.[8] McGhee received a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University in 2001.[5] She was initially drawn to theater and creative writing but eventually became interested in economic policy.[5]
McGhee attended the UC Berkeley School of Law, citing how law school could help give her the credentials to change public policy. She graduated with a J.D. in 2009.[3][5][9]
Career
Positions
After graduating from Yale in 2001, she taught English in Barcelona for a short time, but soon after the September 11 attacks she moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in television writing.[10]
After about a year, she moved to New York City and began working with the non-profit think tank, Demos.[5] In 2003, McGhee first connected with Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, on the topic of credit card debt.[5]
In December 2019 McGhee became chair of the board of directors of Color of Change.[14]
Appearances and talks
In 2016, McGhee's televised phone conversation with a man named Gary on C-SPAN who admitted racial prejudice ("I'm a White male, and I am prejudiced. The reason it is something I wasn't taught but it's kind of something that I learned.") was widely covered by news media organizations and viewed over a million times.[15][16][17][18] A year later, Gary stated he had taken her advice to heart and his views had changed.[19][20]
In 2019, McGhee presented a TED talk entitled "Racism has a cost for everyone."[21]
In 2021, McGhee was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour on CNN, titled "Why racism hurts everyone, regardless of race."[22]
McGhee has appeared on episodes of Pod Save America and was a guest host for a live recording of the podcast in Boston.[23][24]
In September 2022, McGhee gave a brief interview with NPR's Ari Shapiro to discuss the student debt crisis.[25]
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
In March 2021, her book "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together" debuted at #3 on the New York Times best seller list (for non-fiction). In it she discusses what she calls "drained-pool politics", symbolized by the wilful shutting down of public swimming pools in response to desegregation.[26][27]
