Megan Tackney is director of strategic partnerships and engagement for WorkRise, a research-to-action network on jobs, workers, and mobility hosted by the Urban Institute.

Before joining Urban, Tackney was in the New York City Mayor’s Office, helping oversee the city’s public health care, social services, child welfare, and homelessness programs for low-income families. She joined that office after working with the foundation Humanity United to advance and fund new solutions to labor and sexual exploitation in major US cities. Previously, Tackney served in the Obama administration as special advisor to the acting assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services. She also spent six years with the National Women’s Law Center helping lead their advocacy campaigns on employment discrimination, reproductive health care, and family economic security.

Tackney’s work has been featured and published in Vanity Fair, the Center for Advanced Studies for Child Welfare, and National Public Radio’s WBEZ Chicago, among other outlets. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from the George Washington University and a master of public administration degree in human rights from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.