Bruce Katz served as chief of staff to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros during the Clinton administration. He was later senior counsel and staff director for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs. He co-led the housing and urban transition team in the early days of the Obama presidency, serving as senior advisor to the new HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Thereafter he was a vice president at the Brookings Institution and founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, as well as a visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.

He is co-founder (with Jeremy Nowak) of New Localism Advisors and is the Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University. He regularly advises leaders on public and private sector innovations that advance the well-being of communities. In 2006, he received the prestigious Heinz Award in Public Policy for his contributions to understanding the “function and values of cities and metropolitan areas and profoundly influencing their economic vitality, livability and sustainability.”