Claudia Pharis is a 30 year veteran of government and industry.  Her experience in politics and public policy is broad and deep.  She served for seven years as Chief of Staff and then Senior Policy Advisor to Congressman Chaka Fattah.  She has served at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Management and Budget, and the U.S. Congress on both the House and the Senate Budget Committees.

Ms. Pharis’ perspectives are based, not only on knowledge of the public sector, but on direct experience with the private sector as well.  She holds a BS in Physics from University of Hawaii , and an MBA from the Harvard University School of Business Administration.  She served a stint on Wall Street, ran a small business in New York City which, under her direction, grew from $6 million in revenue to $10 million in three years, and she founded Mentor Systems International, a company which designed, produced, and marketed an award winning multi-media educational product for families with children.

Currently, Ms. Pharis is Chair and CEO of The Catalyst Institute for Applied Policy, a social systems intermediary that is engaged in problem solving in large complex systems.  The operational model for Catalyst is the formation of stakeholder partnerships.  Catalyst has formed Capitol City Career Development and Job Training Partnership (Capitol City Careers) which is charged with strengthening the linkage between public education and the economy of Washington, DC. In addition to launching the Banneker Institute, Catalyst is also consulting with Project GRAD USA, a Ford Foundation initiative, on the introduction of Project GRAD into new markets, providing management assistance to a non-profit start-up in Pennsylvania, promoting a national conversation to elevate the value of the arts, and building a web-based career exploration kiosk designed for junior and senior high school students.  Pending projects include the refurbishing of Washington, DC’s Hilltop Campus, and an applied research project on the application of complexity theory to public policy.

Ms. Pharis is a 21^st Century boundary crosser who understands the inner workings of American society: government and the economy, science and technology, our human, physical, and institutional infrastructure, as well as the most basic imperatives of our culture.  She is thoroughly familiar with the requirements, the possibilities, and the limitations of the American social, political and economic system, and has also gained international experience as Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of a new international think tank, The Prague Institute for Global Urban Development.  Her areas of expertise range from economic and community development, education, and institution building, to science and technology policy.  Ms. Pharis is a development professional, and a policy entrepreneur who has organized her life to apply her considerable skills to the design, implementation, and/or retrofit of large scale human systems in a manner that promotes a future for our society that is equitable and just, prosperous and free.