PROFILE

Bob McKinnon is an adjunct professor at the City College of New York and co-founder of the Social Mobility Lab at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership there. He is also host of the award-winning NPR podcast Attribution. He is author of the bestselling children’s book Three Little Engines, the forthcoming children’s book America’s Dreaming, and the weekly Substack newsletter Moving Up Mondays.

As a writer, designer, podcast host, children’s author, and teacher, what unites all of his work is the desire to help others move up in life—just as others have helped him.

In the spirit of attribution, this is Bob’s alternative bio: “Bob McKinnon is the son of Daytona Roth, a former bartender who raised three children largely by herself in various row houses in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and trailers in rural Pennsylvania. He is a proud former recipient of food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, Pell grants, student loans, and numerous other government benefits. His educational and professional success would not be possible without the kindness and efforts of countless teachers, mentors, social workers, friends, family, non-profit workers, and individuals—many of whom will never know their impact on his life.