The Century Foundation (TCF), a leading progressive think tank, today announced the addition of two new members to its Board of Trustees: renowned philanthropic and nonprofit leader Teresa C. Younger and acclaimed physician, sociologist, and author Jonathan Metzl.

“Teresa Younger and Jonathan Metzl are two of the nation’s most incisive thinkers and leaders, whose work has changed how we understand and address some of our society’s most pressing challenges, from gun violence to poverty to the intersection of sexism and racism,” said Bradley Abelow, TCF’s Chairman. “I am thrilled to welcome them to TCF’s Board of Trustees, and to benefit from their wisdom and wealth of experience as we build on over 100 years of shaping progressive policy.”

Younger is a renowned activist, advocate, public speaker, organizational strategist, and proven leader in the philanthropic and policy sectors. Having spent 30 years on the frontlines of critical battles for comprehensive equity and the elimination of institutionalized oppression, she has served as the President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women for more than a decade. She is the longest serving CEO of color and second longest serving CEO in the organization’s 50-plus-year history.

Previously, Younger served as the executive director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and as executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. In the philanthropic sector, she has worked on initiatives to shape and change the narrative on women and girls, including Women’s Funding Network, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, Philanthropy New York, Black Girl Freedom Fund, and Funders for Reproductive Equity. She was named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy” and to the “Top 100 Leaders in Philanthropy” by Inside Philanthropy.

Metzl is an acclaimed physician and sociologist who speaks, teaches, and writes on a range of topics including mental illness and gun violence, race and whiteness in America, and health and health care. He is the author of the groundbreaking book, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland, which offers an in-depth look at why so many working-class white Americans support politicians whose policies are literally killing them.

Currently, Metzl is the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry and the Director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the winner of the 2020 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award, the 2020 APA Benjamin Rush Award for Scholarship, and a 2010 Guggenheim fellowship. Being a gun violence expert, professor, and psychiatrist is a unique combination that allows Dr. Metzl to speak and write about gun violence in America, and in particular to address stereotypes that link guns with race or mental illness, or that blame mental illness for mass shootings and other gun crimes.

Younger and Metzl join a storied, 105-year-old institution whose legacy includes the likes of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., John Kenneth Galbraith, Patricia Roberts Harris, and many more. They join following a period of significant growth for Century, which in recent years has tripled its annual budget and more than doubled its staff; increased its influence on Capitol Hill and in state and local legislatures; and built out new, diverse policy teams of leading experts who have won major progressive victories, from protecting the Affordable Care Act, to leading the fight to secure $800+ billion in expanded aid to unemployed workers during the pandemic, to sounding the alarm about the nation’s fiscal “child care cliff.”

Younger and Metzl will round out TCF’s current Board of Trustees which includes Chairman Bradley Abelow, Jonathan Alter, Alexander Morgan Capron, Jacob Hacker, Melissa Harris-Perry, Heather Howard, Aisha Mills, and Damon A. Silvers.