Under Hornstein's leadership, the Policy Unit produced numerous data-driven policy analyses on topics including the City's property tax system, tax delinquency and receivables issues, tax incentive programs, charter school finances, the efficacy of the City's tourism and convention promotion entities, and the state of retirement security in Philadelphia. In collaboration with the City's Commerce Department, he began coordination of a citywide initiative to increase local spending by Philadelphia's major eds-and-meds anchor institutions, and will continue to coordinate this Anchor Procurement initiative as Executive Director of the Economy League.

In his civic life, Hornstein serves on the boards of Queen Village Neighbors Association, a civic association in Philadelphia, as well as the Philadelphia Crosstown Coalition, a citywide organization representing 25 civic associations. He helped convene the Friends of Neighborhood Education, a citywide initiative to build community support for neighborhood public schools. He has also participated in several of our Leadership Exchanges and ran for City Council in 2011. After leaving academia in 2001 with a PhD in business history and publication of a well-regarded book on the real estate industry, "A Nation of Realtors," Hornstein spent a decade in the labor movement.  He helped low-wage workers in the service and education sectors build workplace and political power. Born in Brooklyn, a product of public schools in Matawan, NJ, with degrees from MIT, Penn and the University of Maryland, he has called Philadelphia home since 2001.