Madeline Janis is co-founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE); a volunteer commissioner to that city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (the country’s largest); and a senior fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Ms. Janis led the historic campaign to pass L.A.’s living wage ordinance and is a leading, award-winning innovator in the fight against working poverty, serving on the boards of Good Jobs First, the Partnership for Working Families, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, and the Phoenix Fund for Workers and Communities. Prior to founding LAANE, Ms. Janis served as executive director of the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) from 1989 to 1993.