Molly Kinder

Molly Kinder is a nationally recognized expert in labor policy, economic inequality, low-wage work, and the present and future of work. Her research at Brookings examines the impact of generative AI on work and workers.

Kinder’s scholarship on workers has been covered widely by national media, and she has appeared regularly on NPR and other media outlets. Her work has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, NPR, Business Insider, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and the BBC. Kinder’s research on essential workers has influenced federal policy and state-level programs, and was cited in dozens of city and county government mandates requiring higher pay for frontline workers.

Previously, Kinder was a nonresident senior fellow at New America and directed research for its Work, Workers, and Technology initiative. She is the lead author of a report exploring the perspectives of workers across the country whose jobs are at high risk of automation. Kinder was also a professor of practice at Georgetown University, where she taught a new graduate-level course on the social, economic, and policy implications of AI.

Kinder has over 20 years of experience in public policy, social innovation, research, philanthropy, and teaching. Previously, she co-founded a $200 million social impact fund and was its vice president of policy; served in the Obama administration as a director in a new innovation program; and co-authored one of the Center for Global Development’s best-selling books. Kinder worked overseas in Liberia, India, and Pakistan with the World Bank and government of Liberia. She has an MPA/ID from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.