Hailey D’Elia is a research assistant in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Her research focuses on workforce development and postsecondary education and training programs. Before joining Urban, she worked on federal policy related to transition-age foster youth mental health and ethically incorporating lived experience into child welfare policy and practice at the state and national levels.

D’Elia is a young adult consultant for the Capacity Building Center for States, a National Youth in Transition Database reviewer, a FosterClub Lived Experience Leader, and a Chafee advisory group member for the New Jersey Department of Children and Families. D’Elia holds a BA in mathematics and sociology with a certificate of undergraduate study in social justice and social change from Rowan University.