UMass Amherst Professor Ralph Whitehead Joins Vice President Biden for Discussion of Economic Challenges Faced by Middle Class

Nov. 3, 2009

Contact:

Ed Blaguszewski 413/545-0444

AMHERST, Mass. – Ralph Whitehead, Jr., journalism professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will participate in a forum with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on the challenges facing the American middle class in the 21st century on Thursday, Nov. 5 at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.

The national press is expected to cover the event convened by the vice president, who chairs the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families. Biden invited Whitehead and five other scholars from around the country to take part in the discussion, which will focus on the many economic developments and trends affecting middle class families, including changes to the overall labor market in recent decades; shifting gender roles and the need for work-life balance in today’s economy; economic inequality and mobility, and the increased gap between productivity and wages.

Whitehead has written about politics and the media, and on changes in the work force and the electorate for a wide variety of publications. He has also advised electoral campaigns, labor unions and public interest groups. He also served in the U.S. Department of Labor in 1994-95.

The other panelists are Melody Barnes, White House director of the Domestic Policy Council; Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute; Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress; Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, and Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow on economic studies at the Brookings Institution.

The event is co-hosted by the Center for American Progress and the Economic Policy Institute.

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