Vanessa Williamson

Vanessa Williamson is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and at the Tax Policy Center. She studies taxation and democracy in America.

Her forthcoming book, “The Price of Democracy,” reveals the revolutionary power of taxation in American history. She is also the author of “Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes,” and, with Harvard professor Theda Skocpol, “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.”

Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Dissent, and Teen Vogue, among other outlets. She has discussed her research on NPR’s “Marketplace”, C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”, CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, and MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” She received her Ph.D. in social policy from Harvard University.