James Barrett is Executive Director of Redefining Progress, the nation’s leading public policy think tank dedicated to promoting a healthy environment, a strong economy, and social justice. Working with government and advocacy groups, Redefining Progress develops innovative policy approaches aimed at promoting these three goals simultaneously.

Redefining Progress’s work includes creating the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), an alternative to the gross domestic product (GDP). Redefining Progress is also one of two Ecological Footprint organizations in the United States.

James’s personal research focuses on a variety of issues concerning energy and environmental economics, including designing policies that can both reduce global warming pollution and enhance economic growth, the economic implications of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, and the technical and economic feasibility of hydrogen production.

Prior to joining Redefining Progress, he was an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, senior economist on the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, and staff economist at the Center for the Advancement of Genomics and the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives. Dr. Barrett earned his B.A. in economics from Bucknell University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Connecticut.