Dr. LaDonna Pavetti is a Senior Fellow, working in MEF’s Alexandria office. She has more than thirty years working in the human services field. Her initial experiences providing direct service to children, adolescents and adults with cognitive disabilities, individuals without housing, and families with very low incomes have had a lasting impact on how she approaches her work. Dr. Pavetti is a national expert on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, having worked on the program since its creation in 1996. She has conducted research on the implementation of TANF and has conducted detailed 50-state analyses of spending, benefit levels and access to the program. She has provided extensive technical assistance to state and local agencies and state policy organizations and has been asked to testify before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures multiple times. She is committed to using her extensive knowledge of the program to improve the implementation of TANF, extend its reach and eliminate racial biases and racial disparities within the program.
At MEF, she is leading the TANF Peer Technical Assistance work and providing support on a project to gather information from tribal TANF programs on the research, technical assistance and data that they believe would help them to provide the best services possible TANF assistance.
Prior to joining MEF, she spent 14 years as a Senior Fellow and Vice President at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and 12 years as a Senior Fellow and Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Dr. Pavetti has a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University, Master’s degrees in both social work and public policy from the University of Chicago social worker and a bachelor’s degree in social work from Catholic University.