AJ Calhoun is the Director of Research and Impact at Leading on Opportunity, an initiative of Foundation for the Carolinas. In this role, he leads a team of designers and social scientists to build inclusive, data-driven tools to advance economic mobility. Before Leading on Opportunity, AJ worked on similar projects with the United Way, Knight Foundation, World Resources Institute, Chicago Community Trust, and Consultative Group to Assist the Poor at the World Bank. He serves on the board of directors for the affordable housing developer DreamKey Partners and was a 2025 Public Life Fellow with the Center for Christianity and Public Life. He holds a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago, a bachelor’s in urban studies from Furman University, and spent two years in Malaysia as a Fulbright Scholar. Currently, he’s completing a master’s in religion at Reformed Theological Seminary (DC) where his research has focused on the relationship between experience and knowledge (particularly within Neo-Calvinism) as well as questions at the intersection of theology, urbanism, and economics. Accordingly, he’s a member of KLC’s economics research hub and the Association for Christian Economics (UK). AJ lives in Charlotte (USA) with his wife Emery where they enjoy cooking for friends, debating literature, and racing each other in the daily NYT games. They are members of Christ Central Church and were featured in the film “A Kingdom of Tea and Strangers”, a documentary about English L’Abri.