Austin Berg is the executive director of the Chicago Policy Center.

He and his work have been featured in the Economist, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. He is the winner of two Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club for his photojournalism work, and was honored as one of Chicago’s “20 in their 20s” by Crain’s Chicago Business.

Austin is the co-author of “The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities,” published by Southern Illinois University Press. And writes the weekly Substack newsletter The Last Ward, which was cited by Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism as a critical part of Chicago’s media ecosystem.

Austin is is also co-founder and president of Iron Light, a public affairs agency. Iron Light has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for three consecutive years, and was named “Public Affairs Firm of the Year” by Campaigns & Elections in 2025.

He is a graduate of Tufts University, and lives in Lincoln Square.