The Century Foundation (TCF), a leading progressive think tank, today announced four new hires with expertise in economic policy and research. Tonantzin Carmona joins TCF as director of economic policy and Kyle K. Moore as chief economist; Lorelei Salas moves from visiting senior fellow to senior fellow; and Sameera Fazili joins the organization as a visiting senior fellow. Together, they bring decades of experience from the White House National Economic Council, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Congress, and city government, along with a shared record of translating rigorous research into policies that improve the lives of working people.
The appointments build on TCF’s moves earlier this year, when the organization welcomed five visiting senior fellows. They reflect a commitment to build an economic agenda that prioritizes investments in programs that grow and sustain the economy while improving people’s lives, like healthcare and childcare, while also tackling the concentrated power that has tilted the American economy toward risky and extractive practices that benefit only those at the top.
Carmona will lead the development of TCF’s economic policy agenda, advancing solutions that expand economic opportunity and strengthen families’ economic security. Moore will anchor TCF’s quantitative economic research, bringing a stratification lens to the forces shaping household well-being. Salas will take on a full-time role driving TCF’s Affordable NYC Now initiative and its work on consumer finance. And Fazili will lead a new project focused on international economics and domestic renewal, examining opportunities to both advance America’s economic competitiveness abroad and shared prosperity at home.
“Our economy is in the hands of leaders who admit publicly that they don’t care about ordinary Americans and who think rising credit card debt is a good thing. They treat public investments in healthcare, childcare, and education as waste while shoveling taxpayer money out the door to their friends. This approach is creating real and lasting damage, and we need to be ready to fix it,” said Julie Margetta Morgan, President of The Century Foundation. “Kyle, Tonantzin, Lorelei, and Sameera know how to build an economy that centers on working people, not Wall Street. Adding them to our team will supercharge Century Foundation’s ability to deliver real change for families across the country.”
Tonantzin Carmona joins TCF as director of economic policy, focusing on policies that expand economic opportunity and strengthen economic security. Carmona comes to TCF from the Brookings Institution, where she was a fellow researching wealth and inequality, financial and emerging technologies, and state and local policy implementation. She previously served as special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House National Economic Council and as senior advisor in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Inflation Reduction Act Implementation Office. Earlier in her career, Carmona worked in the U.S. Senate as deputy press secretary to Senator Elizabeth Warren and served as Illinois political director for Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign. In Chicago, she was director of the Mayor’s Office of New Americans and chief of policy to the City Clerk, where she helped lead citywide initiatives on immigrant integration, ID access, fines and fees reform, and effective government.
Kyle K. Moore joins TCF as chief economist, where he studies economic inequality through the frameworks of stratification economics, political economy, and public health. Prior to joining TCF, Moore was an economist with the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, where he brought a stratification lens to research on the economic well-being of workers and their families. He previously served as a senior policy analyst with the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee, where he advised members and authored reports on a broad range of economic policy issues centered on race, class, age, and gender disparities. Moore’s research focuses on the intersection of racial economic disparities and health inequity across the life course, with particular attention to the “upstream” structural causes of differences in morbidity and mortality across race.
Lorelei Salas, who joined TCF as a visiting senior fellow earlier this year, becomes a senior fellow, where she will focus on projects related to TCF and Protect Borrowers’ Affordable NYC Now initiative and other New York City and consumer protection issues. An accomplished labor and consumer law advocate with decades of experience in public service, Salas served as Supervision Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) until February 2025, leading examinations of banks and other financial institutions. From 2016 to 2021, she was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, the oldest municipal agency in the country enforcing consumer and worker protection laws. She has held several senior roles in New York State government and the nonprofit sector, including leading legal services teams at Make the Road NY and Catholic Migration Services from 2012 to 2016. Salas is also a senior fellow with Protect Borrowers and an adjunct professor and leader in residence in the Economics and Business Department at City College of New York’s Colin Powell School for Civic & Global Leadership.
Sameera Fazili joins TCF as a visiting senior fellow, where she will lead a project focused on international economics and shared prosperity. An economic policy expert with more than 20 years of experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, Fazili has held senior roles in domestic and international economics at the White House, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve, with expertise spanning financial services, manufacturing, clean energy, housing, small business, transportation, and logistics. In the Biden-Harris administration, she served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council, where she led the administration’s work on industrial policy, supply chains, and regional economic development. She played a leading role in the passage and implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. In the Obama administration, Fazili served in domestic and international economic policymaking roles at the White House and the Treasury Department. She has held research roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Urban Institute and taught at Yale Law School, where she helped launch Connecticut’s first community development bank.
TCF Expands Economic Policy Team to Drive New Research Agenda for an Economy Built Around Working People
The Century Foundation (TCF), a leading progressive think tank, today announced four new hires with expertise in economic policy and research. Tonantzin Carmona joins TCF as director of economic policy and Kyle K. Moore as chief economist; Lorelei Salas moves from visiting senior fellow to senior fellow; and Sameera Fazili joins the organization as a visiting senior fellow. Together, they bring decades of experience from the White House National Economic Council, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Congress, and city government, along with a shared record of translating rigorous research into policies that improve the lives of working people.
The appointments build on TCF’s moves earlier this year, when the organization welcomed five visiting senior fellows. They reflect a commitment to build an economic agenda that prioritizes investments in programs that grow and sustain the economy while improving people’s lives, like healthcare and childcare, while also tackling the concentrated power that has tilted the American economy toward risky and extractive practices that benefit only those at the top.
Carmona will lead the development of TCF’s economic policy agenda, advancing solutions that expand economic opportunity and strengthen families’ economic security. Moore will anchor TCF’s quantitative economic research, bringing a stratification lens to the forces shaping household well-being. Salas will take on a full-time role driving TCF’s Affordable NYC Now initiative and its work on consumer finance. And Fazili will lead a new project focused on international economics and domestic renewal, examining opportunities to both advance America’s economic competitiveness abroad and shared prosperity at home.
“Our economy is in the hands of leaders who admit publicly that they don’t care about ordinary Americans and who think rising credit card debt is a good thing. They treat public investments in healthcare, childcare, and education as waste while shoveling taxpayer money out the door to their friends. This approach is creating real and lasting damage, and we need to be ready to fix it,” said Julie Margetta Morgan, President of The Century Foundation. “Kyle, Tonantzin, Lorelei, and Sameera know how to build an economy that centers on working people, not Wall Street. Adding them to our team will supercharge Century Foundation’s ability to deliver real change for families across the country.”
Tonantzin Carmona joins TCF as director of economic policy, focusing on policies that expand economic opportunity and strengthen economic security. Carmona comes to TCF from the Brookings Institution, where she was a fellow researching wealth and inequality, financial and emerging technologies, and state and local policy implementation. She previously served as special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House National Economic Council and as senior advisor in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Inflation Reduction Act Implementation Office. Earlier in her career, Carmona worked in the U.S. Senate as deputy press secretary to Senator Elizabeth Warren and served as Illinois political director for Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign. In Chicago, she was director of the Mayor’s Office of New Americans and chief of policy to the City Clerk, where she helped lead citywide initiatives on immigrant integration, ID access, fines and fees reform, and effective government.
Kyle K. Moore joins TCF as chief economist, where he studies economic inequality through the frameworks of stratification economics, political economy, and public health. Prior to joining TCF, Moore was an economist with the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, where he brought a stratification lens to research on the economic well-being of workers and their families. He previously served as a senior policy analyst with the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee, where he advised members and authored reports on a broad range of economic policy issues centered on race, class, age, and gender disparities. Moore’s research focuses on the intersection of racial economic disparities and health inequity across the life course, with particular attention to the “upstream” structural causes of differences in morbidity and mortality across race.
Lorelei Salas, who joined TCF as a visiting senior fellow earlier this year, becomes a senior fellow, where she will focus on projects related to TCF and Protect Borrowers’ Affordable NYC Now initiative and other New York City and consumer protection issues. An accomplished labor and consumer law advocate with decades of experience in public service, Salas served as Supervision Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) until February 2025, leading examinations of banks and other financial institutions. From 2016 to 2021, she was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, the oldest municipal agency in the country enforcing consumer and worker protection laws. She has held several senior roles in New York State government and the nonprofit sector, including leading legal services teams at Make the Road NY and Catholic Migration Services from 2012 to 2016. Salas is also a senior fellow with Protect Borrowers and an adjunct professor and leader in residence in the Economics and Business Department at City College of New York’s Colin Powell School for Civic & Global Leadership.
Sameera Fazili joins TCF as a visiting senior fellow, where she will lead a project focused on international economics and shared prosperity. An economic policy expert with more than 20 years of experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, Fazili has held senior roles in domestic and international economics at the White House, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve, with expertise spanning financial services, manufacturing, clean energy, housing, small business, transportation, and logistics. In the Biden-Harris administration, she served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council, where she led the administration’s work on industrial policy, supply chains, and regional economic development. She played a leading role in the passage and implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. In the Obama administration, Fazili served in domestic and international economic policymaking roles at the White House and the Treasury Department. She has held research roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Urban Institute and taught at Yale Law School, where she helped launch Connecticut’s first community development bank.