Policy Work

For family reasons I left the University of Texas and then later went to work for a nationally-regarded progressive think tank in Austin. In my first project there, I created the state of Texas’ first Family Security Index and Portfolio. At that time the conversation among experts in personal economics was shifting. Focus on poverty, determined by an outdated 1960s measure, was becoming replaced with concern for economic security which better accounted for the current financial pressures people faced. It was my job to conceptualize the project (combining impeccable data, concise “non-wonk” writing, and compelling visual support for the message), then coordinate the team of policy, data, IT, communication, design and production people who worked as a team to complete it. I did the writing myself.

A followup to the family security project, Tough Choices, involved original qualitative research into lives of a group of economically-struggling central Texas families of different sizes and composition. I conceptualized the study and did its research design, then supervised graduate social work students at the University of Texas to conduct it.

In my other significant role at the think tank, I directed the Texas KIDS COUNT project. KIDS COUNT is a national initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation with an affiliate in each state. Each year we produced a rigorous report, The State of Texas Children, on issues affecting their well-being including economic resources, early childhood care, school success, health, food insecurity, and personal safety. As with my economic security work, it was my job to conceptualize the annual report, then coordinate the specialists who contributed to it. Again, I did the writing myself.

Also in collaboration with the Casey Foundation, I was Texas coordinator, along with KIDS COUNT directors from New Mexico, Arizona, and California, for the Border KIDS COUNT project which documented indicators of child and family well-being along the US/Mexico border. The foundation asked me to present the results of that research at the first conference of the International Society for Childhood Indicators, in Oslo, Norway.