Steve Kest

Steve serves as Senior Advisor to CPD, with responsibility for a number of projects designed to build CPD's capacity.  In addition, he is coordinating the network's "fight-back" campaign against the policies and program of the Trump administration.  Steve also serves on CPD's Senior Management Team.

Steve brings an enormous range of experience, skills, and insights to CPD as a decades-long veteran of community organizing. Most recently, Steve ran the Fight for a Fair Economy (FFE) program at Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a $30 million annual investment in community organizing. While at SEIU he also helped support the Fight for 15 campaign to organize fast food workers. Before joining SEIU, Steve was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he helped CAP develop its work on community organizing.

Steve's most significant experience was at ACORN, where he worked for over 35 years in a wide variety of roles, including as National Executive Director. Steve graduated from Harvard and lives in Brooklyn, NY.