A tip of the hat and a round of applause this morning for Heather McGhee, named new president of Demos. She will succeed Miles Rapoport, who is leaving Demos in early March to become president of Common Cause.

As Demos’ vice president for policy and outreach, McGhee has been a key player in its growth and emergence as a major research and public policy development organization. She directed Demos’ Washington Office from 2009-2011, and in 2009 co-chaired a task force that shaped major portions of the historic Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

An attorney, McGhee earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University and her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

“Heather is really one of the most extraordinary leaders I have ever met,” Rapoport said in a press release announcing her selection. “She is passionate about justice and democracy, she’s a broad and creative thinker with a real sense of strategy and vision, and she’s a wonderful public spokesperson for the progressive movement. Most importantly, Heather is a wonderful internal organizer, caring as much about how we do what we do as what we do.”