Our Team

Jack Moriarty comes to Lafayette Square Institute after founding Ownership America, a public policy organization committed to turning Americans into owners. He is a recognized national leader in the employee ownership movement and has led policy initiatives at the federal and state levels. Jack was a lead architect of the bipartisan American Ownership and Resilience Act (AORA), introduced in 2025 with the aim of crowding in private investment to create wealth for American workers and communities. He has advised members of Congress in both parties and the White House on opportunities to accelerate the growth of employee ownership and has led successful bipartisan state legislative efforts in several states across the country.

Prior to the public policy arena, Jack held a number of strategy and operations roles at healthcare delivery and technology companies including Iora Health, Buoy Health, and Allscripts. He also completed a term of service with AmeriCorps Cape Cod, where he focused on infrastructure management and natural resource conservation.

Jack also serves as the Assistant Director for Policy Analysis at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, and on the Experts' Board of the Institute for Economic Democracy, an NGO based in Slovenia focused on promoting employee ownership structures across the European Union.

Jack received his MBA from the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he was a Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow, and his BA and MA in Political Science from Boston University.

David A. Williams is a Managing Director of Real Estate, Impact and Partnerships at Lafayette Square Institute. Previously he served as the Director of Policy Outreach at Opportunity Insights, a research and public policy lab based at Harvard University dedicated to using big data to improve upward mobility in America. He supported research and evidence-based policy change by creating and leading partnerships with communities across the country, including a regional economic opportunity initiative in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Creating Moves to Opportunity, a national housing mobility initiative.

David served as a senior advisor to the Mayor of Detroit, where he was a member of the Mayor's economic development team, managing large-scale real estate and community revitalization projects, neighborhood planning initiatives, and policies related to economic mobility, land use, and equitable development. He has also served as an affordable housing and community development attorney and a non-profit management consultant.

David received an AB from Harvard College and a JD from Harvard Law School, where he served as President of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, focusing on anti-foreclosure and anti-eviction law and policy. He serves on the boards of Up for Growth and StriveTogether, as a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute, and as an advisor to High Opportunity Neighborhood Partners, a real estate firm dedicated to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty by providing homes to low-income families in high-opportunity neighborhoods.

Katie Deal serves as Vice President at Lafayette Square Institute. At LSI, Katie's work advances policy and investment innovation to expand economic mobility for workers and families. Her portfolio bridges federal strategy and local delivery: designing legislative and regulatory solutions, structuring cross-sector partnerships and investments, and supporting AI-enabled tools and analytics that move high-impact policy solutions from design to implementation nationwide.

Previously, Katie was a Vice President and Public Policy Analyst at T. Rowe Price, where she translated federal and state policy developments into investment theses across $1.4 trillion in assets under management. She led the research team's coverage across equity, fixed income, and multi-asset strategies, built bipartisan networks across multiple presidential administrations, and served as a voting member of the U.S. Credit Rating Committee. Her experience also includes product development and management at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, where she supported blended finance platforms targeting sustainable infrastructure investment across least-developed countries, and at Nextdoor, where she developed go-to-market strategies for AI-enabled climate hazard response services. She has served as a consultant and board advisor to nonprofits advancing permanent supportive housing and equitable community development.

Katie holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was a Knight-Hennessy Scholar and Social Impact Leader Prize awardee, and an MPA from Princeton University with certificates in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy and Responsible AI. She received her BA from the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson and Echols Scholar.

Julien Rosenbloom is a Senior Associate at Lafayette Square Institute. Most recently, he worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, advising governments, investors, and companies on decarbonization, infrastructure, and economic and workforce development.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Julien served on the staff of the Biden Administration's White House Council of Economic Advisers. He also served on the policy staff of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, where he advised the state's Wealth Disparity Task Force and designed a statewide employee ownership technical assistance pilot now administered by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. Julien's other experience includes advising Rutgers University's Office of Climate Action on public-private funding partnerships for clean energy investments and net-zero strategy.

Julien received an MSc in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, where he was a Schwarzman Scholar. He graduated with a BA in Political Science and Economics from Rutgers University—New Brunswick.

Laura Hohenberger is a Data Analytics and Policy Senior Associate at Lafayette Square Institute. She is responsible for analyzing and visualizing data and manages data-related projects across the Institute's policy and technology work.

Previously, Laura served as a Carlo-Schmid Fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Geneva, researching and advocating for a just energy transition, collaborating with national governments and international organizations such as the World Health Organization. She has worked as a data analysis consultant, designing and executing mixed-method longitudinal frameworks to evaluate equitable outcomes of urban development projects in the United States. Her past experience includes running the global outreach campaign at the urban development non-profit Leading Cities and writing speeches for the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation.

Laura holds a Master of Public Policy from Duke University, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and the German Academic Exchange Service, and a BA in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin, where she was a scholar of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

Joseph Johnson is a Managing Director and Head of Liabilities at Lafayette Square. Prior to joining Lafayette, Joseph served as a Senior Vice President in the Capital Markets Group at Goldman Sachs & Co. Joseph has over 20 years of experience in capital markets, responsible for financial institutions coverage and ABS securitization. Joseph started his career in investment banking at Bank of America / Merrill Lynch, and he has also worked for Standard & Poor's Ratings in the Structured Finance Group.

Joseph serves as Chairman of the Board for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and on the Boards of Directors for Columbia Children's Hospital and the Classical Theatre of Harlem in New York.

Originally from Columbus, Georgia, Joseph holds a BA in Economics and a Ph.D. (ABD) in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Damien Dwin is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lafayette Square. Previously, Damien served as Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Brightwood Capital Advisors from its founding in 2010 to October 2020. Damien began his career as a trader with Goldman Sachs in New York and London, there earning the Michael P. Mortara Award for Innovation. At Credit Suisse, he was the Co-Founder and Head of the North American Special Opportunities business until 2010. Damien also served on the Vice President Selection Committee and led the Fixed Income Division Credit Training Program.

He is an active thought leader on place-based investing, mass incarceration, and the use of capitalism for good. He has written for the Financial Times, Entrepreneur, and Inc.com. Damien currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Vera Institute of Justice. He also serves on the non-profit boards of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Woodberry Forest School, and the Boys Club of New York. He is also a Council Member of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Damien received a B.S./B.A. from Georgetown University, where he served two terms on the Board of Regents.

Caitlin McLaughlin is the Chief People Officer at Lafayette Square. Prior to joining Lafayette, Caitlin served as Executive Vice President and Talent Strategy Executive for The PNC Financial Services Group, with overall responsibility for PNC's enterprise talent strategy.

Previously, Caitlin served as a Managing Director focused on global campus recruiting and program management at Citigroup, and held a number of roles within the organization and its predecessor companies, Salomon Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers.

Caitlin is a member of the executive committee of Vibrant Pittsburgh, The Forte Foundation, and Carlow University. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Partner4Work. She chairs the Talent Attraction and Retention Committee for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. She holds a BA in Political Communications from the University of Pittsburgh.