Key issues of inquiry for this network include labor market characteristics and dynamics; policies and strategies to combat deep poverty and non-participation in the labor market; the role of race with respect to poverty, self-sufficiency, and the labor market, including analysis of potential disparate impacts of public policies, systems, and institutional practices; policy and strategies to reduce poverty and material deprivation by encouraging work, promoting self-reliance, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of existing human services programs.
Co-Leads
Members
Darrick Hamilton
Darrick Hamilton is the executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and Professor with the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University. Hamilton is a stratification economist whose work focuses on socioeconomic stratification in education, marriage, wealth, homeownership, health (including mental health), and labor market outcomes. His recent work explores the causes, consequences and remedies of racial and ethnic inequality in economic and health outcomes, which includes an examination of the intersection of identity, racism, colorism, and socioeconomic outcomes.
LaDonna Pavetti
LaDonna Pavetti is the Director of the Welfare Reform and Income Support Division at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. She oversees the Center’s work analyzing poverty trends and assessing the nation’s income support programs, including the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Before joining the Center, Pavetti spent 12 years as a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., where she directed numerous research projects examining various aspects of TANF implementation and strategies to address the needs of the hard-to-employ. She has also served as a researcher at the Urban Institute, a consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on welfare reform issues, and a policy analyst for the District of Columbia’s Commission on Social Services.
Cindy Redcross
Cindy Redcross is Deputy Director of MDRC’s Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment policy area. Her expertise is in random assignment evaluations of programs that serve individuals involved in the criminal justice system. She is currently leading several projects evaluating interventions that target former prisoners and others involved in the justice system, including the U.S. Department of Labor’s multisite Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration and the National Institute of Justice’s Demonstration Field Experiment. She is also leading a demonstration of a new employment-focused cognitive behavioral therapy intervention and is the Deputy Director of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Building Bridges and Bonds project, which is testing the effectiveness of innovative strategies for working with low-income and disadvantaged fathers.
