Alex Laster Berger is the senior federal affairs adviser at the Urban Institute. He amplifies the findings and analyses of Urban’s research on such issues as housing, tax, and justice policy to inform policymakers, stakeholders, and the policymaking process on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch. Before joining Urban, Berger was the manager of government affairs at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he helped develop and lead successful federal legislative advocacy efforts to strengthen and improve affordable housing, antihunger, and income assistance policies. He previously held legislative strategy positions at the Pew Charitable Trusts and the American Civil Liberties Union and was a graduate fellow in the Office of the Deputy Secretary in the US Department of Education. He started his career as a fourth-grade teacher in Atlanta Public Schools as a Teach for America corps member.

Berger holds a master’s degree in public policy, with a concentration in social policy, from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.