Lena has experience in policy analysis, advocacy, research, community organizing, and communications in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and academic sectors. She has led policy and advocacy agendas and campaigns and has experience working with state, local, and federal government to promote anti-poverty policies and initiatives.
Prior to joining the Roosevelt Institute, Lena was a senior policy analyst at Innovations Institute at the University of Connecticut, providing technical assistance and research support to state governments looking to improve their child-serving public systems, including child welfare, Medicaid, and juvenile justice. Before that role, Lena was a senior policy analyst at Children’s Aid in NYC, where she advocated and organized for K-12 educational equity, access to childcare and early childhood education, and other anti-poverty issues at all levels of government.
Lena holds a master of public administration (MPA) from the City University of New York, Baruch College and a bachelor of arts (BA) in English from Skidmore College. She is based in the Hudson Valley.