Karen Chatfield, PhD (she/her/hers), is the director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) within the Straus Institute for Thriving Children & Families. In her role, Karen conducts research on multiple projects to support child and family advocates and state government agencies, providing analysis of federal and local policies that support family economic security. These include measures to alleviate material hardships, mitigate benefit cliffs, and shed light on effective marginal tax rates.
Before joining NCCP, Karen worked at the Educational Alliance, where she served as principal investigator on the Settlement House American Research Plan Impact Study, a mixed-method investigation of the impacts of the Expanded Child Tax Credit and other community supports on New York City settlement house participants and staff, both during and after the pandemic.
Karen’s earlier research focused on children’s outcomes across all dimensions and on the ways in which US social programs and policies support early development in low-income families and communities. She received her PhD at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and earned an MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, also at Columbia.
Areas of Expertise
State and federal policies supporting family economic security, effects of material supports on child outcomes, benefit cliffs, poverty measurement as a policy reform tool, benefit access and administrative burden
