BRAD LANDER

HE’S STACKED with impressive academic credentials — a Truman and a Marshall Scholarship — but Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander is no ivory tower egghead. A former community organizer, he was an outsider on the Council until he teamedtea up with fellow backbencherb Melissa Mark-ViveritoM to createc the Progressives Caucus.

She is now theth term-limited s speaker, and he’s a rising No. 2 who r runs the crucial rulesr committee anda sets the policy agenda.a Unlike posers who claim they support reform, Lander lives it by refusing his lulu, or extra payment for leadership work, now $15,000 a year.

He is a real force on an often weak body that still needs to establish its independence from a powerful mayor who helped install the Mark-Viverito/ Lander team.