Xavier ‘Xav’ de Souza Briggs is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and executive in residence at the newly established School of Government and Policy at Johns Hopkins University. An award-winning researcher and educator, he is also an experienced leader in government and philanthropy. His recent research has focused on revitalizing regional economies by investing in advanced industries, good jobs, affordable energy and environmental sustainability, and tangible ways to advance effectiveness and fairness in the way government works. He has helped catalyze public conversation about how to reimagine and dramatically scale up the financing of climate adaptation, so communities in the U.S. can be far more resilient; how clean energy can be more inclusive, scalable and adaptive; generative AI and the future of work and workers; and how big, public/private bets on “industrial policy” can generate real and lasting economic benefits for local communities and their workers. His writing and views have appeared in the New York Times, TIME, CNN, Fortune, Fast Company, and other major media. He has served as vice president of the Ford Foundation, a faculty member at Harvard and MIT, and senior White House official. He earned an engineering degree from Stanford University, an MPA from Harvard, and a PhD from Columbia and was a visiting graduate fellow in Brazil.