Anisha Steephen
Former Senior Policy Advisor for Racial Equity, U.S. Department of the Treasury
New York, NY
Experience
- Former Senior Policy Advisor for Racial Equity, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Fellow, Economic Security Project
- Founder, Just Economy Lab
Expertise
- Federal economic policy design and implementation
- Economic and income inequality
- Racial, gender, and class disparities in tax and fiscal policy
- Clean energy policy
- Public finance and public investment strategy
- Tax credits for low-income people and underinvested places (including clean energy, low-income housing tax credit, new markets tax credit, child tax credit)
- Community finance, CDFIs, and affordable housing investment
- State and local economic development, zoning, and land use policy
Education
- B.A. in Urban Studies, Columbia University
- M.S. in City & Regional Planning (Housing and Economic Development), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- M.A. in Economics, City University of New York
Recent Coverage
FEB 26, 2026
Trellis: How Google brings its own data center power
“Without serious rate design and interconnection reform, the costs of the buildout land on household electricity bills while the benefits flow to tech companies and utilities,” said Anisha Steephen, former senior advisor with the U.S. Treasury department and fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. “This is the K-shape playing out in real time at the grid level.” (A “k-shaped” economy is characterized by a wide wealth gap between higher-income and lower-income households.)”
FEB 25, 2026
Barron’s: How Trumps claims about the economy in the State of the Union stack up
t the top of Trump’s list of economic accomplishments was his “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” the tax cut and spending law, which is expected to deliver increased tax refunds of $1,000 on average. But Anisha Steephen, fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, writes that for those earning below $100,000, the average increase is just $210. For those earning above $200,000, the average increase is over $2,000.
JAN 30, 2026
amNY: Opinion: ICE is coming for our people and our budget
Anisha Steephen writes: Here’s the bottom line: when people are scared to file, and when enforcement against rich tax dodgers collapses, New York loses revenue from both ends at once. Undocumented immigrants pay about $3.1 billion a year in state and local income and sales taxes, despite receiving limited access to many public programs. Much of that revenue is concentrated in New York City, where foreign-born workers make up about 44% of the labor force. Those contributions are now at risk, from deportations that remove taxpayers entirely and from those who remain but stop filing out of fear. And for most taxpayers, federal and state returns are linked. When people stop filing with the IRS, they often stop filing with New York, too.
AUG 26, 2025
Time: Americans’ Energy Costs are Rising. You Can Blame Trump and Big Tech
If AI companies want to build their future on public infrastructure, they must do their part by paying their fair share of energy costs, funding clean energy buildout, supporting public policies that accelerate that transition, and investing in grid resilience and the communities most affected by rising bills. Some states are proposing new rate structures that make large energy users pay more. That’s a start, but we need a national strategy now.
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About Anisha
Anisha Steephen (they/them) is a nationally recognized expert in domestic economic policy and mission-driven investing. They have over 15 years of experience advancing public policies that address structural inequality across the economy.
They served as the first Senior Policy Advisor for Racial Equity at the U.S. Department of the Treasury under Secretary Janet L. Yellen. In this role, they played a key part in implementing the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act—the largest clean energy investment in U.S. history—to ensure that economically underserved people, businesses, and communities benefit from these transformative laws.
Anisha is the founder of Just Economy Lab, a bold policy project that pushes new ideas to shift economic power and transform how the economy is governed. They currently serve as an Economic & Tax Policy Fellow at the Economic Security Project.
Beyond public policy, Anisha has held leadership roles in public finance and mission-driven investment, consistently championing innovative approaches to direct capital toward underserved communities. They previously served as Executive Director of Spaceworks NYC, Senior Investment Officer at LISC, and in the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs.
Anisha holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Columbia University, an M.S. in City & Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in Economics from the City University of New York. They are a first-generation American and live on the Lower East Side of New York City.
Anisha also contributes regularly to Notes on the Crises, where they write about fiscal democracy, tax policy, and the future of public institutions.
