Bruce J. Katz is a vice president at the Brookings Institution and Founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program which aims to provide decision makers in the public, corporate and civic sectors with policy ideas for improving the health and prosperity of cities and metropolitans areas. Katz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School.

Katz regularly advises federal, state, regional and municipal leaders on policy reforms that advance the competitiveness of metropolitan areas. He counsels on shifting demographic and market trends as well as on policies that are critical to metropolitan prosperity (e.g. innovation, human capital, infrastructure, housing) and new forms of metropolitan governance. After the 2008 presidential election, Bruce co-led the housing and urban transition team for the Obama administration and served as a senior advisor to new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary Shaun Donovan, for the first 100 days of the Administration.

Katz is a visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. He gives dozens of lectures and presentations annually in the United States before public, corporate, civic and university audiences. In recent years, he has lectured about urban and metropolitan issues in countries such as Canada, China, Germany, Turkey, Great Britain, Italy and South Africa. 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.”