Appendix A
Biosketches
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
GREG J. DUNCAN (Chair) holds the title of distinguished professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. His recent work has focused on estimating the role of school-entry skills and behaviors on later school achievement and attainment and the effects of increasing income inequality on schools and children’s life chances. Duncan is part of a team conducting a random-assignment trial assessing impacts of income supplements on the cognitive development of infants born to poor mothers in four diverse U.S. communities. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committee Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years. Duncan received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.
FENABA R. ADDO is an associate professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she is also an affiliate of the Carolina Population Center. She is also a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Samuel Dubois Cook Center for Social Equity, and is a research fellow with the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Addo is an applied social scientist whose work spans the fields of social demography, economics, and policy analysis. Her research program examines the causes and consequences of debt and racial wealth inequality with a focus on family and relationships and higher education. Addo is the co-author of A Dream Defaulted: The
Student Debt Crisis Among Black Borrowers with Jason Houle. She holds a B.S. in economics from Duke University and a Ph.D. in policy analysis and management from Cornell University.
ANNA AIZER is the Maurice R. Greenberg professor of economics at Brown University, co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research Program on Children, and editor of The Journal of Human Resources. The focus of her work is the intergenerational transmission of economic status. Aizer previously served on the National Academies Committee on the Neurobiological and Socio-behavioral Science of Adolescent Development and its Applications. She received her M.S. in public health from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
MARGARET R. BURCHINAL is a research professor in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. Her research examines the role early childhood education plays in children’s learning and development. Burchinal served as the lead statistician for landmark early education studies, including the Abecedarian Project, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study (NICHD) of Early Child and Youth Development, and the Family Life Project and evaluations of major early childhood policy initiatives. She has authored or co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles, served on review panels for the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Institute of Education Sciences, and NICHD, as an associate editor for Child Development and Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and is a board member for the William T. Grant Foundation and the American Educational Research Association’s Research Board. Previously Burchinal served on the National Research Council Committee on Developmental Outcomes and Assessment for Young Children, Early Care and Education Workshop, and Leading Educational Indicators Workshop. She holds a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from the University of North Carolina.
RAJ CHETTY is the William A. Ackman professor of economics at Harvard University. He is also the director of Opportunity Insights (formerly the Equality of Opportunity Project), which uses “big data” to understand how to give children from disadvantaged backgrounds better chances of succeeding. Chetty’s research combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. His work on topics ranging from tax policy and unemployment insurance to education and affordable housing has been widely cited in academia, media outlets, and Congressional testimony. Chetty has received numerous awards for his research, including a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship and the John Bates
Clark medal. Before joining the faculty at Harvard, he was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. Chetty received his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
STEPHANIE A. FRYBERG is the university diversity and social transformation professor of psychology and founding director of the Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity Center at the University of Michigan. Her research expertise focuses on how social representations of race, culture, and social class influence the development of self, psychological wellbeing, and educational attainment as well as on how to design interventions that reconfigure spaces to improve outcomes for racial minority and low-income students. Fryberg testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs regarding the impact of racist stereotypes on Indigenous people, served as lead psychologist on an Amicus Brief for Harjo v. Pro-Football, served as an expert witness in the Keepseagle v. U.S. Department of Agriculture class action lawsuit, and provided testimony to the Spotted Bear and Soboleff Congressional Committee on Native Children. Fryberg has received many awards for her work, including the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues’ Louise Kidder Early Career Award and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Service Award, among others. She is past president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Division 9 of the American Psychological Association). Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Gates Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Yidan Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and New Venture Fund. Fryberg received her B.A. from Kenyon College and both her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.
HARRY J. HOLZER is the John LaFarge Jr. S.J. professor of public policy at Georgetown University, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and an institute fellow at the American Institutes for Research. He is a former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor and a former professor of economics at Michigan State University. Holzer was a founding faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. He is also an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and of the Stanford Institute on Poverty and Inequality. Holzer has authored or edited several books and journal articles, mostly on disadvantaged American workers and their employers, as well as on education and workforce issues and labor market policy. He received his B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
VONNIE C. MCLOYD is the Ewart A. C. Thomas Collegiate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor. As a developmental psychologist, she studies the role of maternal psychological distress, parenting behavior, and family relations as mediators of the links between economic stress and socioemotional development during childhood and adolescence, and factors that moderate these links. McLoyd also examines the extent to which family processes and sociocultural factors (e.g., racial-ethnic identity, racial socialization) protect youth’s socioemotional adjustment from adversities such as neighborhood violence, peer victimization, and perceived racial discrimination. Her scholarly work has been recognized by many awards from the Society for Research in Child Development, the American Psychological Association, and the MacArthur Foundation, among others. Previously, McLoyd was the associate editor of Child Development and American Psychologist, past president of the Society for Research on Adolescence, and president-elect of the Society for Research in Child Development. She was a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s consensus committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years. McLoyd received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan and post-doctoral training at Stanford University.
KIMBERLY G. MONTEZ is associate professor of pediatrics, associate program director of the Pediatric Resident Program, vice chair for Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion in Pediatrics, and an associate director of the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is a health services researcher with a focus on the social drivers of health, health equity promotion among under-resourced populations, and diversity and inclusion in pediatrics. Montez serves in leadership positions for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), is lead author on multiple AAP policy statements and technical reports, including Poverty and Child Health, and has received the AAP Health Equity Award. Her advocacy work has been featured in news outlets, radio shows, and podcasts, including for the National Public Radio show and NBC Nightly News. Montez is also an associate editor for the journal Pediatrics. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, her medical degree from the Stanford School of Medicine, and her master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
AISHA D. NYANDORO is the founding chief executive officer of Springboard to Opportunities, a Jackson, Mississippi, nonprofit that uses a “radically resident-driven” approach to end generational poverty. She created the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which is now the country’s longest-running guaranteed income program, and the only one in the world to focus on
Black women. In addition to leading Springboard’s community work and growing the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, Nyandoro is focused on shifting gendered and racialized narratives around poverty and deservedness, while also working to show how the success of the Trust can be scaled nationally through policies like the expanded Child Tax Credit and a federal guaranteed income. Her expertise on economic, racial, and gender justice issues is regularly featured in outlets including The Washington Post, Amanpour & Company, Essence Magazine, NBC Nightly News, and CNN. Nyandoro is a TEDx speaker and a fellow of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network and Ascend at the Aspen Institute. She holds a B.A. from Tennessee State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
MARY E. PATTILLO is the Harold Washington professor of sociology and Black studies, and chair of the Black Studies Department, at Northwestern University. Her areas of research include race and inequality, housing, urban politics, poverty, education, criminal legal studies, and Black communities. Pattillo is the author of two award-winning books—Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class and Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City; she also is co-editor of Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration and co-editor of a two-issue volume on monetary sanctions in the criminal legal system. Pattillo has won grants and fellowships from the Ford, Fulbright, Spencer, and MacArthur Foundations, among others. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political & Social Science. She is a trustee of the William T. Grant Foundation and Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and was a founding board member of Urban Prep Charter Academies in Chicago. Pattillo holds a B.A. in urban studies from Columbia University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan.
JESSE ROTHSTEIN is Chancellor’s professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), with appointments in the Department of Economics and the Goldman School of Public Policy. He is also the co-founder and co-director of the California Policy Lab and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of the National Education Policy Center, the CESifo Research Network, the Institute for the Study of Labor, and the Learning Policy Institute. He previously served as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, senior economist with the Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President, and director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley. Rothstein is a labor economist,
with research interests in education policy, tax and transfer policy, and the labor market. His recent work includes studies of teacher quality, school finance, intergenerational economic mobility, take-up of safety net benefits, and the labor market during the Great Recession. He has been named the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar by the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Rothstein holds an M.P.P. and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.
MICHAEL R. STRAIN is director of Economic Policy Studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. Much of his recent research has studied the employment effects of public policies, including the minimum wage, Earned Income Tax Credit, Paycheck Protection Program, and unemployment insurance. He is the author of The American Dream Is Not Dead, which analyzes longer-term economic outcomes for typical workers and households, and he is the editor or coeditor of four volumes on economic and public policy issues. Strain also writes frequently for popular audiences, and his essays and op-eds have been published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among others. He has testified before Congress and speaks often to a variety of audiences. He is Professor of Practice at Georgetown University, a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, a research affiliate with the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a member of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Previously, he worked at the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was appointed to the National Academies committee on measuring alternative work arrangements and is currently serving on the National Academies committee on artificial intelligence and the U.S. workforce. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.
STEPHEN J. TREJO is a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on public policy issues involving labor markets, including overtime pay regulation, the experiences of immigrants, and obstacles to the economic progress of minority groups. Much of Trejo’s recent work analyzes patterns of socioeconomic mobility among the U.S.born descendants of contemporary immigrant groups, and one strand of this work explores how selective intermarriage and ethnic identification bias assessments of intergenerational progress for Hispanics and Asians. He has served as a co-editor for the Journal of Human Resources, an associate editor for the Journal of Human Capital, and a deputy editor for Demography. In addition, he was appointed to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panels that studied immigrant integration, U.S. Hispanics, and health insurance. Trejo holds a B.A. degree in economics
from the University of California, Santa Barbara and both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Chicago.
STAFF AND CONSULTANTS
NATACHA BLAIN serves as the senior board director of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and the Committee on Law and Justice at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She has served as a supreme court fellow, chief counsel to senator Dick Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and lead strategic advisor for the Children’s Defense Fund’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign. Prior to joining the National Academies, Blain served as associate director/acting executive director of Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families. There she played a critical role in helping convene and engage diverse constituencies, fostering leadership, collaboration and innovation-sharing through a network of funders committed to the enduring well-being of children, youth, and families. Blain earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Allegheny University of Health Sciences and MCP-Hahnemann University (now Drexel University) respectively, and her J.D. from Villanova School of Law.
EMILY BACKES is deputy board director for the Committee on Law and Justice and Board on Children, Youth, and Families in the Division of Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She also serves as director of the Societal Experts Action Network, a network of leading individuals and institutions in social sciences fields that provides actionable responses to urgent policy questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In her time at the Academies, Backes has served as study director for the reports: Decarcerating Correctional Facilities during COVID-19: Advancing Health, Equity, and Safety; The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth; Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice; and Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education. Backes has also provided analytical and editorial assistance to National Academies projects on juvenile justice reform, policing, forensic science, illicit markets, science literacy, science communication, and science and human rights. She received an M.A. and B.A. in history from the University of Missouri, specializing in U.S. human rights policy and international law, and a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia, where she represented clients as a student attorney with the Low-income Taxpayer Clinic and the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic.
JENNIFER APPLETON GOOTMAN is a senior program officer with the Board on Children, Youth, and Families in the Division of Behavioral, Social Sciences and Education. She most recently served as the executive director of the DC Soccer Club, a non-profit youth sports organization serving thousands of children and youth from across Washington, DC. Previously, Gootman was the project director of the Birth Control Initiative for The National Campaign to Prevent Teen & Unplanned Pregnancy (rebranded as Power to Decide), a series of activities designed to rebuild support for and understanding of the important positive role that birth control plays in the lives of women and men. Gootman has worked as a senior program officer for both the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and the Food and Nutrition Board, directing several studies on topics including adolescent risk behavior, adolescent health, teen driving, food marketing to children and youth, youth development programs, and the impact of work on children and youth in low-income families. Her work has focused on child and family policy for low-income families, including welfare reform, child care, child health, youth development, teen pregnancy prevention, and youth sports. Gootman received a B.A. in education and fine arts from the University of Southern California and a M.A. in urban public policy from The New School University.
RITA HAMAD (Consultant) is a social epidemiologist in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As the director of the Social Policies for Health Equity Research Program, she leads a research team investigating the pathways linking poverty and education with health disparities across the life course. In particular, Hamad studies the health effects of social and economic policies using interdisciplinary quasi-experimental methods. Current studies address the health effects of the earned income tax credit, school segregation, paid leave, and social policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hamad has previously provided consultation to federal and state legislators developing poverty alleviation policies to reduce health inequities. She serves as the co-chair of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science Communications Committee, working to the increase the visibility and impact of population health research. She is also the 2020–2022 James C. Puffer American Board of Family Medicine/National Academy of Medicine Fellow. Hamad holds an M.D. from the University of California San Francisco and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from Stanford University.
PRIYANKA NALAMADA is a program officer at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She primarily supports the work of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families within the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Nalamada work involves providing
critical project management support to National Academies’ activities, including consensus studies and convenings focused on the health and wellbeing of children and families. In addition to supporting the Committee on Policies and Programs to Reduce Intergenerational Poverty, Nalamada currently supports the cross-divisional Standing Committee on Reproductive Health, Equity, and Society; and directs the consensus study on Promoting Learning and Development in K-12 Out of School Time Settings for Low Income and Marginalized Children and Youth. Most recently Nalamada served as acting director for the Forum for Children’s Well-Being. She previously worked for a number of years within the National Academies’ Health and Medicine Division and the Policy and Global Affairs Division, developing and supporting activities within the Board on Global Health and the Board on Higher Education and Workforce including the Committee on Defense Research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions; Minority Serving Institutions America’s Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce; and Forum on Public-Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety. Nalamada holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Bryn Mawr College.
BRIANA SMITH is a senior program assistant with the Board on Children, Youth, and Families in the Division of Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Education. She has a background working with families of diverse backgrounds with differing socio economic status while with the Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services as well as the U.S. military families with Childcare Aware of America. Previously she worked with the Transportation Research Board as a Senior Program Assistant with National Cooperative Highway Research Program and Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program projects. Currently, she is enrolled at Simmons University in the Library and Information Science Master of Science program with the hopes of becoming a public librarian. Smith earned a B.A. in English at James Madison University and a M.F.A. in writing popular fiction at Seton Hill University.
