Policy and Persuasion Expert

Josh Bandoch works at the nexus of rigorous public policy research and cutting edge persuasive advocacy. Above all, he’s committed to empowering individuals and communities to unleash their potential.

As Head of Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, he leads a team of researchers focusing on ensuring everyone is in a position to thrive. They investigate how to establish high-quality education, promote economic growth, and promote housing affordability, as well as ways to remove barriers to thriving like burdensome regulations.

Josh researches how to make the American Dream become reality for more of our neighbors. Central to that Dream is social mobility; and antithetical to it is poverty. We have too much of the latter, and not enough of the former. Josh is committed to turning that around.

Josh is recognized as a persuasion expert. His book on the subject is forthcoming in 2026 with a commercial press. His expertise stems both from practical experience working for years as a speechwriter for senior government officials, and extensive research on the subject. He puts those tools to work every day in his policy advocacy, as well as for clients in trainings.