Founder & Executive Director
Heather is executive director of Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap, which she founded in early 2016. For the past two decades, she has worked as a speaker, educator, convener, writer and advocate for policies and strategies to close the wealth gap in America.
In 2000, as a senior associate at PolicyLink, she co-authored the national publication, Sharing the Wealth, which explored ways residents could gain an ownership stake in their communities. In 2002, she founded Asset Building Strategies, a national consulting firm focused on supporting institutions and leaders to develop policies and strategies that help individuals and families build financial assets to close the racial and gender wealth gaps. Clients have included the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Aspen Institute, Asset Funders Network, Greenlining, Levi Strauss Foundation, Mission Asset Funder, National Conference of State Legislatures, Neighborhood Funders Group, New America, PolicyLink, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and others. In the spring of 2016, she was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, where she co-led a graduate-level course on tackling inequality through equitable development. She’s written about inequality for the Los Angeles Times, CNN Business, New York Times, Slate, Union Tribune and other state and local publications. She earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.