David Lanham is a public policy communications leader with nearly 15 years of experience working closely with the nation’s leading public policy experts to disseminate research, data, and thought leadership focused on domestic policy issues that include economic development, labor, technology and AI, climate resilience, infrastructure, workforce development, housing, racial equity, and demographic change. With a career dedicated to improving public policies, Lanham is passionate about expanding access to accurate information, contributing to solutions that can redress inequities, and improving the livelihoods of all people.
Lanham previously served as Senior Director of Communications at Brookings Metro, leading the communications team for six years and managing the research program’s strategic communications planning, media relations, social media, writing and editing, visual design, and events management functions. Lanham also served as the co-chair of Brookings Metro’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. In this function, he led efforts to modernize Brookings’s racial/ethnic terminologies in Brookings’s writing style guide, and encouraged the Associated Press and other media/publishing outlets to standardize the capitalization of “Black,” in regards to describing people.
Prior to his work at the Brookings Institution, Lanham was the Director of Communications at the Alliance to Save Energy, a Washington-based bipartisan energy efficiency policy organization, where he was responsible for advancing the organization’s energy efficiency policy advocacy efforts. Previously, Lanham served as the Communications Manager at the National Environmental Education Foundation, a congressionally charted nonprofit, where he managed the organization’s communications and outreach efforts.
Lanham received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy from the College of William & Mary. During his undergraduate years, Lanham interned with the Department of Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, where he helped conduct research into new methods to disseminate benefits payments to individuals lacking formal banking affiliations.
Lanham resides in Washington, DC, with his wife, Meg, and their puppy, Bailey.