The Century Foundation (TCF), a leading progressive think tank, today announced that five renowned policy experts and researchers are joining the organization as visiting senior fellows. The new fellows—Janelle Jones, Lorelei Salas, Kody Kinsley, Seth Frotman, and Eduard Nilaj—bring decades of experience from the highest levels of government, labor unions, consumer advocacy, and economic research, strengthening Century’s efforts to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and advance transformative solutions that improve the lives of working families.
The appointments come as TCF accelerates its work, under the leadership of Julie Margetta Morgan and Angela Hanks, to expose how concentrated power is fueling rising prices and household debt across people’s lives, including utilities, student loans, credit cards, health care, child care, housing, and more. As visiting senior fellows, they will contribute research, policy development, and advocacy on issues such as worker power and labor markets, consumer protection, health care reform, and economic security more broadly.
“As the Trump administration jacks up costs for families in order to enrich its Wall Street allies, The Century Foundation is expanding our team to fight back and chart a path to the future,” said Julie Margetta Morgan, President of The Century Foundation. “Janelle, Lorelei, Kody, Seth, and Edi are among the most respected voices in their fields and have spent their careers delivering real results for working people—from eliminating medical debt to cracking down on predatory lending to shaping economic policy to close racial and gender gaps. At a moment when families are under attack, we need exactly their combination of expertise and creative thinking to make change. I’m thrilled to welcome them to TCF.”
Janelle Jones served as the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor in the Biden-Harris administration, where she was the first Black woman to hold that role. A nationally recognized expert in labor markets, macroeconomic policy, and strategies to reduce racial and gender economic disparities, Jones previously served as chief economist and policy director at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Her research has helped shape national conversations on full employment, worker power, and the structural barriers that limit economic opportunity, and has been cited in The New Yorker, The Economist, Harper’s, and The Washington Post.
Lorelei Salas brings decades of experience fighting inequality through labor and consumer law. Most recently, she served as Supervision Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where she led examinations of banks and financial institutions. From 2016 to 2021, Salas 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 is also a senior fellow with Protect Borrowers and an Adjunct Professor at City College of New York’s Colin Powell School.
Kody Kinsley served as North Carolina’s Secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services from 2022 to early 2025. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in expanding Medicaid through bipartisan collaboration, resulting in over 715,000 North Carolinians gaining coverage. He secured a historic $835 million investment in behavioral health to transform care and improve access, and led a push among state health secretaries to call on the FDA to update discriminatory blood donation policies for gay men. Kinsley also pioneered a first-in-the-nation medical debt relief program, which relieved $6.5 billion in debt for over 2.5 million people at no cost to the state, while reforming hospital billing and charity care practices to prevent the debt from accumulating in the future. His career includes serving as a Presidential appointee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and in roles at the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Seth Frotman served as General Counsel and Senior Advisor to the Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from 2021 to 2025, overseeing all aspects of the CFPB’s legal work, including litigation, administrative law, and congressional oversight. Under his guidance, the CFPB successfully defended its constitutionality before the U.S. Supreme Court and launched groundbreaking initiatives on junk fees, medical debt, worker surveillance, and Big Tech’s entry into consumer finance. Previously, Frotman co-founded and served as Executive Director of the Student Borrower Protection Center (now Protect Borrowers), a leading nationwide consumer advocacy organization working to end America’s student debt crisis. In recognition of his efforts to protect military families from predatory lending, he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence.
Eduard Nilaj is an economics researcher and data expert who has been the lead researcher for three headline-making pieces of TCF research in the past year on utilities debt, student debt, and credit card debt. He is also a fellow with Protect Borrowers and previously worked as a senior research associate at the Jain Family Institute. He completed a PhD in Economics at The New School for Social Research.
TCF Welcomes Five Leading Experts as Visiting Senior Fellows
The Century Foundation (TCF), a leading progressive think tank, today announced that five renowned policy experts and researchers are joining the organization as visiting senior fellows. The new fellows—Janelle Jones, Lorelei Salas, Kody Kinsley, Seth Frotman, and Eduard Nilaj—bring decades of experience from the highest levels of government, labor unions, consumer advocacy, and economic research, strengthening Century’s efforts to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and advance transformative solutions that improve the lives of working families.
The appointments come as TCF accelerates its work, under the leadership of Julie Margetta Morgan and Angela Hanks, to expose how concentrated power is fueling rising prices and household debt across people’s lives, including utilities, student loans, credit cards, health care, child care, housing, and more. As visiting senior fellows, they will contribute research, policy development, and advocacy on issues such as worker power and labor markets, consumer protection, health care reform, and economic security more broadly.
“As the Trump administration jacks up costs for families in order to enrich its Wall Street allies, The Century Foundation is expanding our team to fight back and chart a path to the future,” said Julie Margetta Morgan, President of The Century Foundation. “Janelle, Lorelei, Kody, Seth, and Edi are among the most respected voices in their fields and have spent their careers delivering real results for working people—from eliminating medical debt to cracking down on predatory lending to shaping economic policy to close racial and gender gaps. At a moment when families are under attack, we need exactly their combination of expertise and creative thinking to make change. I’m thrilled to welcome them to TCF.”
Janelle Jones served as the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor in the Biden-Harris administration, where she was the first Black woman to hold that role. A nationally recognized expert in labor markets, macroeconomic policy, and strategies to reduce racial and gender economic disparities, Jones previously served as chief economist and policy director at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Her research has helped shape national conversations on full employment, worker power, and the structural barriers that limit economic opportunity, and has been cited in The New Yorker, The Economist, Harper’s, and The Washington Post.
Lorelei Salas brings decades of experience fighting inequality through labor and consumer law. Most recently, she served as Supervision Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where she led examinations of banks and financial institutions. From 2016 to 2021, Salas 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 is also a senior fellow with Protect Borrowers and an Adjunct Professor at City College of New York’s Colin Powell School.
Kody Kinsley served as North Carolina’s Secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services from 2022 to early 2025. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in expanding Medicaid through bipartisan collaboration, resulting in over 715,000 North Carolinians gaining coverage. He secured a historic $835 million investment in behavioral health to transform care and improve access, and led a push among state health secretaries to call on the FDA to update discriminatory blood donation policies for gay men. Kinsley also pioneered a first-in-the-nation medical debt relief program, which relieved $6.5 billion in debt for over 2.5 million people at no cost to the state, while reforming hospital billing and charity care practices to prevent the debt from accumulating in the future. His career includes serving as a Presidential appointee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and in roles at the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Seth Frotman served as General Counsel and Senior Advisor to the Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from 2021 to 2025, overseeing all aspects of the CFPB’s legal work, including litigation, administrative law, and congressional oversight. Under his guidance, the CFPB successfully defended its constitutionality before the U.S. Supreme Court and launched groundbreaking initiatives on junk fees, medical debt, worker surveillance, and Big Tech’s entry into consumer finance. Previously, Frotman co-founded and served as Executive Director of the Student Borrower Protection Center (now Protect Borrowers), a leading nationwide consumer advocacy organization working to end America’s student debt crisis. In recognition of his efforts to protect military families from predatory lending, he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence.
Eduard Nilaj is an economics researcher and data expert who has been the lead researcher for three headline-making pieces of TCF research in the past year on utilities debt, student debt, and credit card debt. He is also a fellow with Protect Borrowers and previously worked as a senior research associate at the Jain Family Institute. He completed a PhD in Economics at The New School for Social Research.