Thaddeus Ferber

Thaddeus is a campaigner, although not for elected office. Rather, he’s a leading national voice on aligning inter-agency policies for children and youth, infusing youth voice into public policy, and utilizing online communications and advocacy.

Thaddeus helped draft and usher to passage the bi-partisan Federal Youth Coordination Act, which calls for the creation of a council of the secretaries of all major federal departments in order to align their youth-focused efforts. He drafted sections of the White House Task Force For Disadvantaged Youth's Final Report during President George W. Bush's administration, and is currently supporting the policy work of the Obama Administration through its White House Council on Community Solutions. He developed the Policy Alignment Guide and is working with both the executive branch (through the Presidential Memorandum on Administrative Flexibility), and the legislative branch (through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee) to support their policy alignment initiatives.

Thaddeus helped orchestrate National Youth Summits for both the George W. Bush Administration and the Obama Administration. He founded America's Youth Council's network, and is leading a campaign to create a Presidential Youth Council, through which young people would have a voice in federal policies affecting youth.

Thaddeus launched the Youth Policy Action Center website to build a national constituency that contacts elected officials about youth issues, and managed the Connect for Kids website to inform the public about child and youth issues. He oversaw the merger of those sites into SparkAction, an interactive network which mobilizes action for and by young people.

Thaddeus joined the Forum in 1998 as a John Gardner public service fellow. Before that, he worked at the President’s Crime Prevention Council during the Clinton administration, the Stanford Center on Adolescence, the John Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities, the HOME Afterschool Project in Alameda, Calif., and ELEM, a nonprofit for runaway, homeless and neglected Israeli and Arab youth.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Youth Development and Policy from Stanford University. His honors include the John Gardner Public Service Fellowship, the Capitol Advantage Civic Award, the Mobilize 08 Award and the Champion of Juvenile Justice Award.