Judith Bell, as president of the advocacy group PolicyLink, oversees policy development, strategic planning, program implementation, and policy campaign strategy. She leads projects focused on equitable regional development policy to enhance the income and assets of the poor. Her portfolio includes the fair distribution of affordable housing throughout regions, equity in public investment and land use, and community strategies to reduce health disparities. She has supervised and engaged in extensive research and advocacy, particularly at the statewide level, and edited and written numerous reports on these topics. She is a regular speaker and trainer on advocacy and consults with organizations and leaders about strategy development and implementation.

Bell’s advocacy work with PolicyLink has included efforts to improve access to healthy foods, solutions to overcrowding in K-12 schools, and equitable approaches to infrastructure investment. Prior to joining PolicyLink, she was director of the West Coast regional office of Consumers Union, where she focused on changing public policies to promote greater access to health care, financial services, and low-cost auto insurance. Bell also developed and co-directed a 32-state project to preserve charitable assets as nonprofit health care institutions converted into for-profit businesses. The project’s work was instrumental in preserving more than $15 billion of charitable funds, creating 125 new health care foundations in 35 states across the country, and changing applicable state laws.