Taryn Morrissey is an associate professor of public policy in the American University School of Public Affairs and a nonresident fellow in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute. Her work focuses on improving public policies for vulnerable children, including early care and education, nutrition assistance, and public health policies. Ongoing research investigates the effects of family economic instability, neighborhood poverty, and state paid family leave programs on children’s health and achievement. From 2013 to 2014, Morrissey was a senior adviser in human services policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services. She worked primarily on President Obama’s Early Learning Initiative, including Early Head Start and child care. From 2008 to 2010, Morrissey was a health policy adviser on the staff of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, where she worked on the Affordable Care Act and other public health issues. She began her career in policy as a Society for Research in Child Development/American Association for the Advancement of Science congressional fellow. She received her BS from Tufts University and her PhD in developmental psychology from Cornell University.