Tom Hilliard is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. He recently served as Senior Advisor to the New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education, where he managed high-priority initiatives for the Secretary, including strengthening student success, connecting educational attainment to the workforce, and relations with legislative and institutional leaders, as well as convening an advisory group on COVID-19 response.  

Previously, Tom served as Senior Fellow for Economic Opportunity at the Center for an Urban Future, a New York-based think tank. At the Center, Tom developed creative policy solutions to empower and serve low-income and minority youth and adults, seeking to bridge the boundaries between programs and to bring effective strategies to the attention of policymakers. Tom’s prior work includes advocacy on behalf of low-income children and adult learners at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, analyzing health care delivery and insurance for the New York City Office of the Public Advocate, and managing an adult medicine clinic in New York City’s Lower East Side. Tom has written more than two dozen research studies on economic opportunity-related topics, and his writing has been featured in The New York Daily News, Newsday, The Village Voice, The Hill, City and State, The Albany Times-Union, and other publications.  

A proud native of Nashville, Tennessee, Tom holds a B.A. in English from Auburn University and an M.A. from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.