The American Constitution Society and the Institute for Law and Humanities is pleased to announce From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half a talk by Professor Peter B. Edelman (Georgetown University Law Center, Co-Chair, Task Force on Poverty, Center for American Progress).

Professor Peter Edelman is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and poverty law. A member of the faculty since 1982, he has served in all three branches of government. He took leave during President Clinton's first term to serve as counselor to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and then as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation. He was a legislative assistant to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and was issues director for Sen. Edward Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1980. Prior to working for Robert Kennedy, he was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and before that to Judge Henry J. Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as special assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Douglas in the Civil Division, and was a partner in the law firm of Foley & Lardner.

Prof. Edelman's book, Searching for America's Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope, is available in paperback from the Georgetown University Press. He has written extensively on poverty, constitutional law, and children and youth. His article in the Atlantic Monthly, entitled " The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done," received the Harry Chapin Media Award. With Harry Holzer and the late Paul Offner, he recently co-authored Reconnecting Disconnected Young Men, published by Urban Institute Press.

Prof. Edelman has chaired and been a board member of numerous organizations and foundations. He is chair of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, and is currently board president of the New Israel Fund and board chair of the National Center for Youth Law. In addition, he is a board member of the Public Welfare Foundation, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the American Progress Action Fund, and a number of other nonprofit organizations.