Baillee Brown, Head of Government and External Affairs — Washington, D.C.
What excites you most about your current role?
I'm thrilled about the momentum abundance has, and our dedicated, nimble team will help turn abundance policy ideas into action.
What do you get up to outside of work?
I love to do yoga, hike in nature, listen to live music, and spend time with people I love!
What makes you optimistic about our abundant future?
The world will be a better place if we can fix our self-imposed obstacles and invest in building more housing, advancing clean energy, and discovering the cures of tomorrow.
What’s your low-stakes hot take?
Daylight saving time should be abolished.
J.D. Grom, Senior Advisor — Washington, D.C.
What excites you most about your current role? Working with an organization laser-focused on getting stuff done to make the U.S. more affordable and competitive in the 21st century.
What do you get up to outside of work? Spending time with my family, ideally outdoors.
What makes you optimistic about our abundant future? Momentum is building around an abundance agenda, adding to the already strong foundation of policy and advocacy organizations who have been leading on this work for many years.
What does abundance mean to you? Being outcomes-oriented in tackling the collective challenges we face.
What’s your low-stakes hot take? Leading with kindness prevails.
Anna Marcus, Executive Assistant — New York, NY
What excites you most about your current role? I have worked at larger and less action-oriented organizations in the past. I am excited to be on a smaller team and step up wherever I can to support the mission.
What do you get up to outside of work? Outside of being physically active, I love spending time with friends, listening to music, and drawing.
What makes you optimistic about our abundant future? I have been frustrated and dismayed by the gridlock within American politics. Abundance is a dynamic approach that actually aims to effectively create change on issues that impact people. The fact that people across the board are excited about abundance shows that there is an appetite for change.
Who's your ideal dinner guest? Christoph Niemann is an artist, animator, and author. I first saw his work highlighted on the Netflix special, The Art of Design. He has an account called ‘Abstract Sundays’ where he takes everyday objects and uses their shape, outline, or shadow to create another image entirely. I think he’d be really fun to chat with over dinner about his creative process.
Which person who you don't know do you most admire? Angela Davis.
What’s your low-stakes hot take? A perfectly toasted piece of bread, with just butter, is grossly underrated.
Joshua Seawell, Head of Policy — Los Angeles, CA
What excites you most about your current role? Getting to engage with ideas and learn from really smart people for a living.
What do you get up to outside of work? A great day is if I’m lifting weights, reading, seeing friends, and sitting on a sunny patio somewhere with a snack.
What does abundance mean to you? More sophisticated economic policy and stronger government capacity leading to historic standards of living for all, which in turn creates revitalized communities and empowered households.
What piqued your interest in policy? A fascination with basic moral philosophy and early exposure to The West Wing.
Which person who you don't know do you most admire? Hard to choose just one, but John Maynard Keynes is in the top tier.
What’s your low-stakes hot take? It should be harder to make substitutions at restaurants.
Will Viederman, Chief of Staff — New York, NY
What excites you most about your current role? Working with such a smart team of people trying to make the world a better place, with creativity, novelty, and measurable impact at the forefront.
What do you get up to outside of work? I love to watch movies, try new recipes, walk as much and as far as I can, and get my hopes up about the Mets, Jets, and Knicks.
What makes you optimistic about our abundant future? I love cities, and an America with genuinely abundant housing and energy will make our cities the engines of opportunity and loci of arts and innovation that they should have been all along.
What piqued your interest in policy? I lived in New Hampshire during the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections and saw so many candidates up close. I bought into the value of public service, and wanted to have the same kind of impact that they did.
Who's your ideal dinner guest? Jane Jacobs. I'm fascinated by the tension between her libertarian economics and communitarian politics, and I would love to talk to her about where she thinks we should go from here.
What’s your low-stakes hot take? Sports are one of the pillars preventing society from collapse.
