Episode # 21: AAP Advocacy SVP Jeff Hild
Welcome to our latest edition of WonkCast: People Power Policy.
I’m Zach Laris, and this is WonkCast—where we spotlight the people, ideas, and tensions shaping child and family policy.
The constraints leaders operate under vary by the type of institution they lead. That in turn shapes what they see as possible for the future of child and family policy.
Advocates and policymakers can talk past each other when they don’t see the constraints that their counterparts are operating within.
Today’s guest has a unique vantage point on that tension, as a senior child advocacy leader who previously ran the Administration for Children and Families.
Jeff Hild is the Senior Vice President for Advocacy at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Before that, he led ACF at the end of the Biden Administration.
He offers essential and actionable insights if you’re an advocate or policy expert wanting to better influence institutional processes.
He also unpacks what shapes how advocates work in a way critical to understand for anyone making decisions about policy, funding, or research.
He has an especially sharp insight into how the very design of administrative processes determines who can participate in them, shaping who gets heard.
As an AAP alum myself, it was a particular treat to get to sit down with Jeff and hear how his public sector leadership is informing their advocacy strategy.
Sponsorship Shoutout
Special thanks to Binti for their foundational sponsorship of WonkCast.
