About MDRC
West serves as a resource manager in the Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities policy area. In this role, she supports project directors and task leaders with project management by developing and maintaining budgets and work plans. Her current projects include Supporting Moves to Opportunity, Career Impact Bonds, Career Certificates, and the Rent Reform Demonstration. Before joining MDRC, West honed her skills over the years in grants management supporting academic awards at Laney College in Oakland, California, and California State University, East Bay, in Hayward, California. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in government from California State University, Sacramento.
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MDRC Publications
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Other Publications
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Projects
Postsecondary education and training have long been viewed as paths to higher-paying jobs and careers, but many students face financial and other barriers to enrolling in and successfully completing college or high-quality training programs. Students of color have also been excluded by these programs because of inequities that are often rooted in historical and...
With support from the $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund, Social Finance aims to empower more than 20,000 learners to realize over $1 billion in aggregate wage gains over the next decade. Google Career Certificates are industry-recognized credentials that prepare people for in-demand, entry-level jobs in the fields of data analytics, IT support, project...
Alexander Mayer, Michelle Ware, Frieda Molina, Hannah Dalporto, Andrea Vasquez, Susan Scrivener, John Diamond, Dorota Biedzio Rizik, Rashida Welbeck, Sophia Sutcliffe, Clinton Key, Melissa Boynton, Austin Slaughter, Erick Alonzo, Kalito Luna, Xavier Alemañy, Melissa WestIncome share agreements ( ISA s) are designed to help students pay for and attend postsecondary education and career training programs. With an ISA , students receive financial support to help cover the cost of their education and, in return, agree to pay a fixed percentage of their future income over a predetermined time period. ISA s are gaining popularity as an...
Nandita Verma, James A. Riccio, Gilda Azurdia, Jonathan Bigelow, Cynthia Miller, Caroline Schultz, Edith Yang, Melissa WestGrowing up in high-poverty, highly segregated neighborhoods can limit the future prospects of young children. But low-income families with children often lack sufficient resources and face other systemic barriers to choosing freely what neighborhoods they live in. The federal government’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which subsidizes rent for some low-income...
James A. Riccio, Nandita Verma, Gilda Azurdia, Edith Yang, Jonathan Bigelow, Keith Olejniczak, Joshua Vermette, Audrey Yu, Melissa WestThe Housing Choice Voucher Program is one of the federal government’s major programs for helping very low-income families with children, elderly people, and disabled people afford decent and safe housing in the private rental market. Housing vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban...