Interview: How Andre M. Perry Leads With Strengths
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About the Leader
Andre M. Perry
Director of the Center for Community Uplift
Senior Fellow, Brookings Metro
- Ideation®
- Strategic®
- Arranger®
- Futuristic®
- Analytical®
Andre M. Perry is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, Director of Brookings' Center for Community Uplift, a scholar-in-residence at American University and a professor of practice of economics at Washington University. A nationally known and respected commentator on race, structural inequality and education, Perry is the author of the book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities. Perry is a regular contributor to MSNBC and has been published by numerous national media outlets, including The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, TheRoot.com and CNN.com. Perry has also made appearances on HBO, CNN, PBS, National Public Radio, NBC and ABC. Perry's research focuses on race and structural inequality, education, and economic inclusion. Perry's recent scholarship at Brookings has analyzed Black-majority cities and institutions in America, focusing on valuable assets worthy of increased investment.
Perry combines two of his most dominant strengths -- Futuristic and Ideation -- in his work at the Brookings Institute, constantly transforming ideas into policy frameworks intended to shape the future and create a better world.
Ideas are the lifeblood of Perry's work. He builds, examines, critiques, refutes, discards and champions ideas in the performance of his role. To gather new ideas, he looks outside his field of expertise, going to plays, reading books, and speaking to people who might expose him to novel and useful ideas.
One of the ways Perry's Self-Assurance strength manifests itself is through a contrarian attitude within his field of racial justice. Too many people, says Perry, pinpoint and publicize the hardships of the Black community. He resists the common narrative by elevating people who succeed and change life's conditions.
Perry sees room for necessary disruption and development in the research tools commonly used to understand key social issues, such as racial disparities. To imagine and build a better world, he seeks to avoid or remove biases and prejudices built into traditional systems of measurement.
To create meaningful outcomes in a highly complex landscape, Perry has developed a network of people who contribute to his work. He endeavors to understand and amplify their strengths to influence his mission, strategically building teams of people who know themselves and their contributions well.