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; and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is a scholar affiliate and board member of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL). Kearney’s scholarly research focuses on poverty, inequality, and social policy in the United States. Her work is published in leading academic journals and is frequently cited in the press. She serves in an editorial capacity for a number of academic economics journals. Kearney previously served as Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings and co-chair of the JPAL State and Local Innovation Initiative. Kearney teaches Public Economics at both the undergraduate and Ph.D. level at the University of Maryland. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT.