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Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

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CESO Leadership

Tara Watson headshot
Tara Watson Director - Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Sarah Reber Headshot
Sarah Reber Cabot Family Chair - Economic Studies, Senior Fellow - Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Our experts

Randall Akee
Randall Akee Nonresident Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity
Gary Burtless Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Kristin Butcher
Kristin F. Butcher Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity
marcus casey
Marcus Casey Nonresident Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Tiffany Ford
Tiffany N. Ford Nonresident Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Amy Goldstein
Amy Goldstein Visiting Fellow - Economic Studies
haskins
Ron Haskins Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies

Harry Holzer
Harry J. Holzer Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Melissa Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at University of Maryland, researching domestic social policy, poverty, and inequality. Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, she’s a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution. Previously, Kearney directed the Hamilton Project at Brookings and co-chaired J-PAL’s State and Local Innovation Initiative. She is a senior editor of the Princeton/Brookings journal The Future of Children, editorial board member of American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Journal of Economic Literature, and advisory board member for the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, Smith Richardson Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation.Melissa S. Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group; a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings; a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO); and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She is a senior editor of the Future of Children, an editorial board member of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Journal of Economic Literature, and a former co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. She serves on the Board of Governors of the Smith Richardson Foundation. Kearney served as Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings from 2013-2015 and as co-chair of the JPAL State and Local Innovation Initiative from 2015-2018.Kearney's academic research focuses on domestic policy issues, especially issues related to social policy, poverty, and inequality. Her work has been published in leading academic journals and has been frequently cited in the popular press. She has testified before Congress on the topic of U.S. income inequality. Kearney teaches Public Economics at both the undergraduate and PhD level at the University of Maryland. She holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied on a National Science Foundation graduate student fellowship and a Harry S Truman fellowship.
Melissa S. Kearney Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, The Hamilton Project

Phil Levine
Phillip Levine Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity
Dayna Bowen Matthew
Dayna Bowen Matthew Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity
Sarah Reber Headshot
Sarah Reber Cabot Family Chair - Economic Studies, Senior Fellow - Center for Economic Security and Opportunity
Isabel V. Sawhill Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Mallika Thomas
Mallika Thomas Nonresident Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Tara Watson headshot
Tara Watson Director - Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, Senior Fellow - Economic Studies

STAFF

Gabriela Goodman, Research Assistant

Gabriela graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BS in Economics. While at UNC, she wrote a thesis exploring the effects of mental health on academic achievement and the long-term consequences of pass/fail grading flexibility. She previously interned at the U.S. House of Representatives and worked as a research assistant at UNC. Her research interests include social and economic mobility, education policy, and mental health.

Simran Kalkat, Research Assistant

Simran joined the Center on Children and Families after graduating from the University of California, Davis and completing her degree in Economics. During her time at UC Davis she wrote a senior thesis on library programming and safety net participation. Previously, she interned at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Her research interests lie in education policy, employment, and safety net programs.