Natalie Foster

Natalie is a leading architect of the movement to build an inclusive and resilient economy that works for all. President and co-founder of Economic Security Project and Aspen Institute Fellow, her work and writing has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, TIME, Business Insider, CNN, and The Guardian. Natalie speaks regularly on economic security, the future of work and the new political economy. An unstoppable builder, Natalie previously founded the sharing economy community Peers and co-founded Rebuild the Dream with Van Jones, and served as Digital Director for President Obama’s Organizing for America – a leading partner in winning transformative healthcare reform. A daughter of a preacher from Kansas, Natalie draws on the values of community, dignity, and optimism to build a better America. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband and two kids. Natalie’s first book, The Guarantee, asks us to imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable by all but guaranteed, by our government, for everyone.

As a featured 2023 Spring Writer-on-the-Edge, Natalie wrote:

While I was writing The Guarantee at Mesa Refuge, I had a Toni Morrison quote on a post-it on my laptop that is now at the start of my book: “I stood on the border, stood on the edge, and claimed it as central and let the rest of the world come over to where I was.” My writing process and the book itself have really been about “claiming as central” ideas that often get dismissed as politically unfeasible; we can remake the American economy to guarantee the things we need to not just survive, but thrive.