Our new research series Mobility Experiences, published in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, examines some key factors influencing US economic mobility.
Marc Allen
Director, Shared Prosperity Sector Lead
Marc Allen – Director, Shared Prosperity Sector Lead
Marc draws on his experience as a strategist and policy attorney to advise organizations intent on redressing our economic and democratic systems, in the US and globally.
In leading Camber’s Shared Prosperity portfolio, Marc has served national and state governments, global and local philanthropies, policy institutes, multilateral organizations, community service providers, and for-profit entities across a range of local, national, and international impact initiatives. His project work is oriented toward extending economic security, economic mobility/opportunity, and power/voice through improved investment, policy, programs, and representation. He also leads the Economic Narrative Coalition, a national effort to evolve the false narratives warping popular perceptions of poverty.
Marc primarily supports these goals through versatile expertise in research/data analytics, strategic planning, and coalition-building with a preference for collaborative, data-driven, and nonpartisan approaches. Secondarily, he also guides executive teams in interrogating their own organization structures, missions, and business models. He joined Camber in 2017, following an initial Big Law career pleading economic/policy disputes at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and diverse social impact implementation and investment roles across the Deep South, Europe, and Francophone Africa.
Marc gained a BS in International Relations from the London School of Economics & Political Science before completing his J.D. equivalent. Based in California, he is an English/French native speaker and dual national, conversant in Spanish. His personal time is a constant tussle between his basic self (runs on donuts/football/dark humor) and better self (explores oceans, shares cooking/wine/cocktail creations, mentors), with special attachment to New Orleans and southern France.
Posts by Marc Allen
In 2023, Camber Collective and the Economic Mobility & Opportunity team at the Bill & Melinda Gates ...
This piece discusses the implications of public benefit access disparities across states in the US and presents a methodological approach applied by Camber to identify and address disparities at the state level.
Through our work, we have identified several key equity principles that are common across the most inclusive and high-performing charter schools and initiatives, which could serve as a model for both new and existing charters to follow.
Although US inflation levels are now beginning to moderate, many still feel the sting of higher prices, particularly low-income households. Philanthropies should focus part of their financial and non-financial resources on mechanisms that advance consumer protection, financial literacy, and gap areas in terms of federal support.
The racial and ethnic wealth divide is primarily the result of historic and continuing systemic inequities that affect people of color in the United States (e.g., land theft from indigenous tribes, enslavement of Black people, the G.I. Bill, redlining and housing discrimination, etc.). Baby bonds policies could, using a race-neutral approach, begin to correct some of those inequities that underlie the racial and ethnic wealth divide.
In analyzing and partnering with organizations supporting opportunity youth nationwide, we have identified 4 sequential categories of needs that must be met in order for OY to experience upward economic mobility and thrive within the workforce.
Learnings from our landscape analysis of the Mobility from Poverty space in the US.
Initially drawn to economic mobility as a social impact issue, many stakeholders have been compelled to take action on economic mobility in the face of three longstanding trends: persistently high poverty rates, new evidence of declining economic mobility, and unsustainable levels of wealth concentration. We discuss these trends and how stakeholders can engage more meaningfully.
As government, philanthropy, and the private sector become increasingly aligned around the need to share prosperity more equitably in the US, particular momentum has grown to strengthen economic mobility – in the form of breakthrough research, ambitious policies, and powerful coalitions.