George W. McCarthy

Dr. George “Mac” McCarthy is President and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Lincoln Institute seeks to improve quality of life through the effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land. A nonprofit private operating foundation whose origins date to 1946, the Lincoln Institute researches and recommends creative approaches to land as a solution to economic, social, and environmental challenges. Before joining the Lincoln Institute in 2014, Mac directed Metropolitan Opportunity at the Ford Foundation which sought to provide disadvantaged people better access to good jobs and other opportunities for advancement by supporting regional planning, and coordinated transportation and housing development to alleviate poverty and reduce its concentration in metropolitan areas in the U.S. and developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Before taking that position, Mac administered a program at Ford that focused on using homeownership to build assets for low-income families and their communities. Before joining Ford, Mac worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mac has worked as Professor of Economics at Bard College, Resident Scholar at the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Visiting Scholar and Member of the High Table at King’s College of Cambridge University, Visiting Scholar at the University of Naples, Italy, and Research Associate at the Centre for Social Research in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mac received a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics at the University of Montana; an M.A. in Economics at Duke University; and, a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.