Hannah Matthews was deputy executive director for policy, where she provided leadership, strategic guidance, and support for the organization’s policy and advocacy agenda. Hannah is an expert on federal and state child care and early education policies and cross-sector policies that affect young children, including children of immigrants.

Hannah previously served as CLASP’s director of child care and early education. In that role, she advocated for public policies that advanced healthy child development, parent well-being, and family economic stability. She was also a leader on improving access to quality child care and early education for children of immigrants and children of color.

Hannah is a nationally recognized expert on the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and worked with advocates and policymakers nationally and in states to improve child care subsidy policies for children and families with low incomes. Her work helped to inform the 2014 reauthorization of CCDBG, its implementation in the states, and to secure the largest federal funding increase in CCDBG’s history in 2018.

Hannah also held policy analyst and senior policy analyst roles at CLASP and served as a senior advisor on child care policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2015. Prior to joining CLASP, she worked in research assistant positions at the National Assembly of Health and Human Service Organizations, the Levitan Center for Social Policy Studies, and Voices for America’s Children. She also worked at Human Rights Watch.

Hannah earned a bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University.