New York, N.Y. - May 25, 2007 - National Urban League President Marc H. Morial announced the creation of the President's Council of Economic Advisors to assist the league in efforts to mold national economic policy and advance the league's Economic Empowerment agenda.

The council, made up of some of the nation's leading economists and the first of its kind at a civil rights organization, is being chaired by Dr. Bernard E. Anderson of University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. It will meet twice a year to devise policy recommendations on issues central to the league's core mission -- such as job creation, education, immigration, income inequality and housing, among others.

The panel's membership also includes: Dr. Gerald D. Jaynes of Yale University's Department of African American Studies, Dr. Alan Krueger of Princeton University's Department of Economics, Dr. Lucy Reuben of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and Dr. William M. Rodgers of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning.

"I am very excited that such a distinguished and highly accomplished group of academics has agreed to assist us in a wide range of public policy issues. Their insight and wisdom will be invaluable in our quest to close the economic gap that exists between blacks and mainstream America," Morial said.

About the Council's Members

Dr. Bernard E. Anderson, the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Professor of Management at Wharton, was an Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 2001. Dr. Anderson has also served on the boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America. His research interests include: workplace and employment standards, workforce diversity, international labor standards and wage determination. He has appeared on NPR, the Nightly Business Report and CNBC, among other media outlets.

Dr. Alan B. Krueger, the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton, has been published widely on the economics of education, labor demand, income distribution, social insurance, labor market regulation and environmental economics, among other topics. Dr. Krueger is also founding director of the Princeton University Survey Research Center and has served as a chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor. He was a frequent contributor to The New York Times' "Economic Scene" column from 2000 to 2006.

Dr. Gerald D. Jaynes has served as professor of African American Studies and Economics at Yale since 1977, chairing the university's African American Studies Department in the early 1990s. He has also served as study director for the National Research Council's Committee on the Status of Black Americans and is an adjunct fellow with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Dr. Lucy Reuben is currently a visiting professor at Duke and is a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan's Center for the Education of Women. She previously served as Provost at North Carolina Central University, held an endowed chair at South Carolina State University and has been on the faculty at Florida A&M University and George Mason University. Dr. Reuben specializes in finance and minority business enterprise development and has been widely quoted in television and print media, including The Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise magazine.

Dr. William M. Rodgers is a professor at Rutgers' Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, specializing in labor economics and the economics of social problems. He has also served as chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor. Dr. Rodgers has been quoted in the New York Times, USA Today and BusinessWeek, among other publications, and has appeared on CNBC, CNNfn and countless radio talk shows.

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