ITEP - Key Persons
Areas of Expertise
State Tax Policy State Tax Trends Budget policy Child tax credit Earned income tax credit Circuit breakers
Aidan is ITEP's state policy director. She coordinates ITEP's state tax policy research and advocacy agenda and works closely with policymakers, legislative staff, and national and state organizations across the country to advance policy solutions that aim to achieve equitable and sustainable state and local tax systems.
Her analyses focus on how tax and budget policies affect low- and moderate-income families as well as how tax and budget policies affect federal, state and local governments' ability to fund essential public priorities, including education, childcare, infrastructure and health care. Aidan is the lead or co-author of numerous publications on topics including refundable tax credits for workers and families (such as federal and state-level Earned Income Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits), using tax codes to address inequality and poverty, promoting progressive revenue raising options, and the identifying tax policy trends across the country. She is also a co-author of ITEP's flagship report, Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States.
Before joining ITEP in 2015, Aidan focused on state and local budget policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts. In that role she led research, authored reports, and provided technical assistance to help states improve their long-term fiscal health. Prior, Aidan focused on the property tax and a range of issues affecting low-income families while working with the District of Columbia's Office of Revenue Analysis and the George Washington Institute of Public Policy. Aidan has also consulted, providing fiscal and policy analysis, for Vermont's Joint Fiscal Office and Barrett and Greene, Inc.
Aidan holds a bachelor's degree from Kent State University and a Master of Public Policy from George Washington University.
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Communications Director
- Assistant Communications Director / Operations and Development
Alex leads the organization's graphic design work and content creation for email, social media, and website. He also supports the communications team through partner outreach, media relations, and internal communications.
Prior to joining ITEP, Alex served as the Digital & Media Manager for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, whose mission is to advance lasting solutions that expand economic opportunity and well-being for all Georgians. He supported GBPI in a similar capacity to ITEP, helping refine the organization's brand and growing its following among press, lawmakers, organizations focused on public policy and Georgians invested in creating an inclusive state where everyone can thrive.
An Atlanta resident, Alex received his B.S. in Communication from Kennesaw State University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Board Chair of the American Prospect
Areas of Expertise
Federal Taxes State Taxes Budget Policy Taxes and Climate Justice Workers and Wages
Amy Hanauer, ITEP's Executive Director, provides vision and leadership to bring accurate research and data to tax policy conversations. ITEP's research shows that more progressive and adequate tax codes will do more to bring about racial, economic and climate justice. When wealthy people and corporations pay their fair share, the country raises more revenue for the essential things we need and does so in a way that is more conducive to equity and growth.
Amy joined ITEP in 2020, bringing nearly 30 years of experience creating economic policy that advances social justice. Amy is also the Executive Director of Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), ITEP's 501(c)(4) partner organization. As Director, Amy raises resources, guides strategy, and works with the board and staff to make ITEP and CTJ a critical part of the policy conversation around a stronger tax code.
Prior to joining ITEP, Amy founded and developed Policy Matters Ohio from a one-person start-up in 2000 to a 14-person operation with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. Under her guidance, the organization provided research that helped boost Ohio's minimum wage, establish a state Earned Income Tax Credit, restore collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and expose how tax cuts for the wealthy have not improved Ohio's job climate.
Earlier in her career, Amy opened a Milwaukee office for the think tank COWS, helping place women in unionized manufacturing jobs, and worked for Wisconsin State Senator (now U.S. Rep) Gwendolynne Moore, defending the safety net for Wisconsin families.
Amy is the board chair of The American Prospect magazine, served as Vice President of the board at the think tank Demos from 2010-2018, and has held board or committee leadership roles at the Economic Analysis Research Network and the State Priorities Partnerships, both networks of state think tanks. A graduate of Rockwood Leadership Institute, Amy is the author of several publications on worker justice, green jobs and racial and economic equity. She received her Master of Public Affairs from the Lafollette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University.
https://youtu.be/JoFFgsdtPAA ITEP Executive Director Amy Hanauer appeared on CNN on March 17, 2025 to discuss the ongoing attack by DOGE…
Ben joined ITEP as a developer in 2025 and builds internal and external tools to advance ITEP's mission. Prior to joining ITEP, Ben spent over 10 years working as the web and IT project manager for a national non-profit in the health and beauty industry.
Carl Davis is the research director at ITEP, where he has worked since 2008. Carl works on a wide range of issues related to both state and federal tax policy. He has advised policymakers, researchers, and advocates on tax policy issues in nearly every state. Much of his work relates to the link between taxes and economic growth, and the shortcomings of dynamic scoring and supply-side economic theories.
Areas of Expertise
tax modeling state taxes federal taxes cannabis taxes school voucher credits gas taxes dynamic scoring
Carl is the research director at ITEP, where he has worked since 2008. Carl works on a wide range of issues related to state, local, and federal tax policy. He has advised policymakers, researchers, and advocates on tax policy issues in nearly every state. Much of his work pertains to tax incidence analysis, which illuminates how tax policies vary in impact across income level and race. He has contributed to five editions of ITEP's flagship Who Pays? report, which measures effective tax rates by income level in every state, and was the project lead on the most recent edition of the study.
Carl has been deeply involved in building out ITEP's growing portfolio of work at the intersection of taxes and race. This included advising the organization's economists and analysts in their successful effort to attach racial identifiers to ITEP's tax microdata, as well as authoring reports demonstrating the positive, and negative, effects that tax policy has on racial disparities.
As research director, Carl is responsible for steering ITEP's work to new or underexplored areas and has written about proposals to legalize and tax cannabis sales, to implement vehicle-miles-traveled taxes, and to update the tax treatment of the "gig economy." He has also investigated the connection between state taxes and economic growth, options for improving transportation funding through gas tax reform, the pitfalls of expansive tax subsidies for seniors, and promoting housing affordability with property tax circuit breakers.
Carl has conducted extensive research into tax credits for people who contribute to organizations that give out vouchers for free or reduced tuition at private K-12 schools. That research helped reveal the profitable tax shelters that these credits create for some upper-income people and was heavily cited in the run-up to an IRS regulation that curtailed use of those shelters.
Prior to assuming the role of research director, Carl worked as an analyst for ITEP and used its proprietary microsimulation tax model to perform tax incidence and revenue analyses for lawmakers and advocates across the country. Carl also previously worked as part of the State Economic Issues team at AARP. He holds bachelor's degrees in both economics and political science from Virginia Tech and a Master's in Public Policy from George Washington University.
Former President Donald J. Trump's economic proposals could inflame the nation's debt burden while ultimately raising costs for a vast…
Dylan is the "coach on the floor" of the ITEP state policy team. He provides hands-on analysis and support on tax policy issues to advocates and lawmakers in several states. He also supports and vets the work of ITEP's other state analysts as they do the same in their states, and he liaises between the state team and the data and model team to ensure quality and consistency in how ITEP models policies and presents data. Dylan also serves on ITEP's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Prior to joining ITEP in 2016, he worked as a Fiscal Policy Analyst at OpenSky Policy Institute, which provides research, analysis, education, and leadership around budget and tax policy debates in his home state of Nebraska. Before OpenSky, he worked as a Research Associate at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., focusing on a range of state fiscal policy issues. He holds a BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and an MA in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. He lives and works in beautiful Vacaville, California.
Eli is a State Analyst who monitors trends in state tax policy and conducts long-term research. His focus is principally on the border South and California. Prior to joining ITEP in 2022, Eli researched spatial economic inequality and local budgets at Brookings Metro with particular attention to local use of federal funds.
Job Titles:
- Senior Data Analyst
- Senior Data Analyst / Communications
Emma works to support and expand ITEP's microsimulation model and other off-model analyses. Her work aims to disaggregate the effects of tax policy changes by race, income, citizenship status, and geography. Before joining the team, Emma researched domestic social policy at the Congressional Research Service. She received an Interdisciplinary B.A. in Economic Inequality from the University of Connecticut and her MSc in Public Policy from University College London.
Erika brings more than 25 years of information management, project management, and development experience in non-profit, government, and commercial environments to the Data and Model Team. She joined ITEP in 2019. As a developer, Erika redesigned and implemented a new microsimulation modeling platform, allowing ITEP to respond more quickly to a wider range of policy proposals and changes. Under her direction, ITEP created a dedicated team of data analysts who support and supply our policy analysts and communications staff. Erika works to ensure that ITEP's capabilities continue to serve the requirements of our staff, partners, and funders.
Felicia is responsible for ITEP's day-to-day operations, financial and executive support, and human resources. Before working at ITEP, Felicia provided her expertise at Underwriters Laboratory, National Association of Realtors®, NAACP, and ACLU. She brings over 30 years of experience, including 15 years dedicated to non-profit administration. Felicia is a U.S. Navy veteran. She joined ITEP in 2019.
Galen Hendricks joined ITEP in 2021. As a data analyst, he supports ITEP's microsimulation model and analyzes the impacts of tax policy changes. Prior to joining ITEP, Galen worked at the Center for American Progress, where he conducted research on federal fiscal policy and labor market trends
Jessica is a Federal Policy Analyst who supports ITEP with research and analysis of progressive tax priorities. Prior to joining ITEP in 2025, Jessica worked for the Center for American Progress, where she researched federal tax and budget policies. She graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in International Politics and Economics.
Areas of Expertise
State Taxes Federal Taxes Communications
As Deputy Director, Jon helps guide ITEP's overall strategy and approach to policy change, works to properly resource ITEP's work, and leads ITEP's work to shape the public debate around tax policy and ensure that policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders are using ITEP's data and analysis in order to make sound decisions.
Before joining ITEP in 2022, Jon was the Director of State Communications at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. At CBPP, he led a team that helps boost the communications capacity and provide strategic direction to the more than 40 state-based policy and advocacy organizations that make up the State Priorities Partnership. This work included everything from working on in-depth messaging and public-opinion research to managing state policy report rollouts to overseeing training and peer-learning opportunities for communicators throughout the network, and more.
Before that, he was Vice President at New Jersey Policy Perspective, where he led the organization's strategic communications and advocacy campaigns and oversaw its policy development. His work at NJPP helped lead to a range of policy victories, including several increases in the state's Earned Income Tax Credit, tax increases on the wealthiest New Jerseyans, more accountability of corporate tax breaks, boosts to the state's minimum wage, Medicaid expansion, a statewide earned sick leave law, the first increase in TANF cash assistance in decades, and more. He also managed NJPP's finances and operations and researched tax, budget, and economic issues. In New Jersey, he also served on Gov. Phil Murphy's transition team, advising on tax and budget policy.
Jon has also worked as a writer and editor for a wide range of publications, nonprofit organizations, and authors. He holds an M.A. in media ecology from New York University and a B.S. in communications from Boston University. He currently serves on the Steering Committee of Americans for Tax Fairness. You can find him on Twitter at @WhitenJon.
Marco provides research and analysis to help support state policymakers across the country, including in many of the Great Plains states and Southwest. Prior to joining ITEP in 2020, Marco spent more than four years providing commentary and tracking state tax news as an associate editor with Tax Notes.
Marco earned his bachelor's of science degree from Arizona State University and a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University.
As a Communications Associate, Marcus helps prepare various digital content and translate complex tax policies into effective messaging for a wide range of audiences. He joined the communications team as an intern during his senior year at the University of Florida until his role became a permanent position. During his college tenure, Marcus published news articles, held leadership roles in student-run publications, and provided in-depth analysis on social media analytics for clients.
A Florida native, Marcus received his Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Florida.
ITEP Senior Fellow Matt Gardner recently spoke to Sonali Kolhatkar about how worldwide combined reporting can be used to crack down on corporate tax avoidance.
Areas of Expertise
Economic modeling federal tax policy state tax policy corporate taxes
Matt Gardner is a senior fellow at ITEP where he has worked since 1998. He previously served as ITEP's executive director from 2006 to 2016. Matt's work focuses on federal, state and local tax systems, with a particular emphasis on the impact of tax policies on low- and moderate-income taxpayers. He uses ITEP's microsimulation model to produce economic projections and analyses on the effects of current and proposed federal and state tax and budget policies.
Matt is a noted corporate tax expert and the primary author of ITEP's regular corporate studies on the tax habits of Fortune 500 corporations (most recently, Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law) as well as publications on international corporate tax avoidance. He regularly examines corporate financial filings and writes briefs, blogs and reports on trends in corporate tax avoidance. He monitors and researches federal tax policies and writes about their impact on tax fairness and sustainability, and he is often called on to speak publicly about corporate tax issues and federal and state tax policies.
Matt's earlier work for ITEP focused on state policy. He is an author of Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States (2003, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2018, and 2024 editions). He has conducted tax analyses for state and local policymakers and advocates in more than 45 states. Matt has degrees from the University of Maryland and the University of Rochester. He resides in Washington, D.C. and originally hails from Raleigh, N.C. Follow him on Twitter @gardmaf.
Michael is a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. He is also a senior fellow with the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, where he was the founding director, and an independent author.
This is Michael's second tour at ITEP. He was previously the State Tax Policy Director and then the Tax Policy Director. During that period he was the principal designer and coder in the creation of the ITEP tax microsimulation model. During the 11 years he was previously at ITEP he was involved in most major tax debates at the federal and state level.
Michael was also the Vice President of Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress from 2008 through 2013. He led a team that was deeply engaged in the policymaking of that period as the country fell into the worst recession since the Great Depression and recovered under the Obama administration. He was especially focused on an equity-based paradigm and middle-class lens for economic policy and the economic aspects of clean energy, health care and immigration-as well as tax policy.
As the founding director of the Carsey School from July 2014 until January 2023 he lead the creation of the school and the expansion of its programs-building on the pre-existing Carsey Institute. The school is particularly known for its strong graduate programs, work in community finance and family well-being and, within New Hampshire, convening difficult conversations related to controversial subjects-with a particular focus on racial justice and equity.
At other points in his career, Michael was director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Economic Policy Institute, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy Portfolio at the Pew Charitable Trusts, Counsel in the New York State Assembly, Director of Economic Policy Planning for the Clinton-Kaine transition (pre-election), the co-lead of the Regional Economics and Battleground States Subcommittee of the Biden-Harris campaign's Economic Policy Committee, and a volunteer immigration attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Michael is a board member of the Just Jobs Network and previously served on the advisory group for the Groundwork Collaborative and served on the boards of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, Public Works, and the Center for Policy Alternatives. He was a member of the Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission. He holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a graduate degree from American University.
Job Titles:
- Consultant / Formerly at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Miles provides research and monitors state tax policy to support state researchers and advocates.
Before joining ITEP in 2022, Miles worked in the office of Rep. Peter DeFazio for more than three years. As a legislative assistant, his work included drafting a windfall profits tax on oil companies to prevent corporate profiteering from global crises and returning the tax revenue to Americans as a rebate, pursuing an equitable tax policy related to financial transaction taxes and tax avoidance from the wealthy and major corporations, and reforming higher education policy to improve affordability and eliminate the burden of student loan debt. Overall, his legislative portfolio included budget, education, financial services, homeland security, housing, labor, LGBTQ issues, taxes, and technology/telecommunications.
Miles is a proud Oregonian and earned his B.S. in Economics, Political Science, and Journalism from the University of Oregon.
Job Titles:
- Senior Analyst
- State Policy Analyst for the Institute
"What this really comes down to is fairness," Neva Butkus, a state policy analyst for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said.
Born and raised in a working-class community outside of Chicago, Neva has witnessed firsthand the impacts on a community when policymakers prioritize the wealthy and corporations in state and local tax policy. As a Senior Analyst at ITEP since 2021, Neva now supports researchers and advocates in their fight for equitable and adequate state tax systems through policy analysis, research and collaboration. Prior to ITEP, Neva was a Senior Policy Analyst at the Louisiana Budget Project where her research and advocacy included issues of corporate tax policy, working family tax credits, unemployment insurance, and K-12 finance policy.
Neva holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from Louisiana State University. She resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow
- Senior Fellow With
Areas of Expertise
Local Policy State Taxes
Nick serves as a Senior Fellow with ITEP's state and local policy teams. He brings three decades of expertise in state and local tax policy to advance economic justice and sustainable public finance. Most recently, he led the District of Columbia Tax Revision Commission as Executive Director, where he guided the independent, decennial commission's comprehensive review of D.C.'s tax system through the development of dozens of policy reforms, several of which have already been enacted into law.
Prior to these roles, Nick worked at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), most recently as Senior Vice President for State Fiscal Policy. There he built and led a team of over 40 professionals working to expand economic opportunity and reduce poverty through state-level policy reform. His team's accomplishments included helping to establish and expand state Earned Income Tax Credits that now provide $4 billion in annual support to 11 million working families, and securing billions in new state tax revenue through the creation of broader, fairer state tax bases to fund essential services.
A recognized expert in fiscal policy, Nick has played a crucial role in major federal initiatives, including securing $165 billion in state funding through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $350 billion in the 2021 American Rescue Plan. He also pioneered CBPP's State Policy Fellows program, which has launched over 50 young leaders, primarily people of color, into policy careers.
Nick's background includes service as a Professional Staff Member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, where he worked on economic development and welfare reform. Earlier in his career, he worked as a journalist reporting for the City News Bureau in Chicago and The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Nick holds a Master of Public Policy from Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Yale University. He serves on several boards, including the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Duke University's M.P.P. Alumni Advisory Board. His expertise is frequently sought by national media, and he regularly advises state and federal policymakers on fiscal policy matters.
Rita is a Local Analyst who focuses on equity and fairness. Prior to joining ITEP, Rita worked for the Cook County Treasurer's Office on research related to property taxation, tax collection, and municipal debt. She has also worked on issues including fines and fees, state block grants, and homelessness prevention.
She has a Master of Public Policy from the Harris School at the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.
Sarah is a Senior Analyst at ITEP. She focuses her research on progressive revenue-raising options for states. Before joining ITEP in 2025, Sarah served as senior policy advisor to the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. Prior to that, she served as the research and policy director at the Maine Center for Economic Policy where she focused her research on state budget advocacy, refundable tax credits, and progressive tax policies to improve revenue adequacy and fairness.
Sarah holds a bachelor's degree from Unity College and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin.
Areas of Expertise
Federal Tax and Budget Policy Corporate Tax
Steve is ITEP's federal policy director. In this role, he is responsible for setting the organization's federal research and policy agenda. He is the author of numerous reports and analyses of federal tax policies as well as in-depth policy briefs that outline how the federal income tax and corporate tax code can be overhauled to improve tax fairness.
Just before taking on the role of ITEP's director of federal tax policy, Steve spent more than two years as the senior tax policy analyst for Sen. Bernie Sanders and as a member of the senator's Budget Committee staff. In this capacity, he wrote legislation related to personal income and corporate income taxes, financial transaction taxes, estate taxes and tax avoidance.
Before joining Sen. Sanders' staff, Steve had previously worked for ITEP and its c(4) partner Citizens for Tax Justice for more than eight years. During this time, he built expertise in analyzing tax policies and their effect on federal revenue as well as on people across the income spectrum. Notably, he wrote reports on proposals to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts, as well as proposals to eliminate tax breaks for investors and corporations as a way of financing health care reform and other initiatives.
Earlier in his career, Steve worked for the Social Security Administration's Office of Policy and the Coalition on Human Needs. He received a Juris Doctor and Master's in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a bachelor's from New York University.
As Development Manager, Steven manages ITEP's fundraising strategy and activities, helping to grow and sustain the organization.
Prior to joining ITEP, Steven served as Development Coordinator at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, where he managed relations with donor partners and collaborated closely with senior staff on development activities.
He previously worked as a Development Writer at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he crafted proposals, reports, and other materials on the Center's work and impact. Steven also has experience planning and coordinating fundraising efforts at Prosperity Now, Farmworker Justice, and the Washington Office on Latin America.
Steven holds a B.A. in International Studies from American University, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland.