Child Care and Early Education Staff
Danielle Ewen, Director
Elizabeth Hoffmann, Policy Analyst
Hannah Matthews, Senior Policy Analyst
Rachel Schumacher, Senior Fellow
Contact us:
Center for Law and Social Policy
1015 15th Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
Main: (202) 906-8000
Fax: (202) 842-1174
Danielle Ewen
Director
dewen@clasp.org / (202) 906-8014
Danielle Ewen directs the Child Care and Early Education Policy team. Prior to joining CLASP, Danielle Ewen was the Senior Policy Analyst at the Trust for Early Education (TEE), where she worked on federal policy issues related to pre-kindergarten. Prior to joining TEE, Ms. Ewen worked at the Children’s Defense Fund as a Senior Program Associate in the Child Care and Development Division. In that role, she worked on issues related to early childhood education policy, including child care, Head Start, pre-kindergarten, and school-age care, and helped develop several publications, including reports on state child care and pre-kindergarten policies and investments. These include Low Income Families Bear the Burden of State Child Care Cutbacks and State Developments in Child Care, Early Education and School-Age Care 2002. Ms. Ewen was also the Assistant Director for the National Child Care Information Center. In that position, she provided technical assistance to grantees of the Child Care and Development Block Grant, oversaw a large question-and-answer service, and responded to requests for information about the child care subsidy system from policymakers, parents, providers, and others in the child care field. In addition, Ms. Ewen is the author of several publications that examine the child care assistance system and state spending on quality initiatives, including: Child Care and Development Block Grant Report of State Plans and Report on the Activities of the States Using Child Care and Development Block Grant Quality Improvement Funds. Ms. Ewen was also a Policy Analyst at the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of Migrant Education, where she worked on issues related to implementation of Chapter 1 programs, family literacy, bilingual education, and evaluation. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University.
Elizabeth Hoffmann
Policy Analyst
ehoffmann@clasp.org / (202) 906-8008
Elizabeth Hoffmann is a Policy Analyst working on child care and early education policy. Prior to joining CLASP, Ms. Hoffmann was a research assistant at the Center for Impact Research, working on issues affecting low-income families in Chicago including welfare reform and homelessness. She also worked with the Illinois Coalition for School Health Centers as a consultant, focusing on quantitative data and cost-benefit analysis. In 2006, Ms. Hoffmann earned a Master’s in Public Policy from Duke University with a concentration in social policy. She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Hannah Matthews
Senior Policy Analyst
hmatthews@clasp.org / (202) 906-8006
Hannah Matthews is a Senior Policy Analyst working on child care and early education policy. At CLASP, Ms. Matthews tracks federal program data, in particular, from the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant and has contributed to several publications on the child care subsidy system and its importance for low-income families. Ms. Matthews works on CLASP’s Breaking Down Barriers project to improve access to high-quality early education for immigrant families, for which she co-authored the publications, Reaching All Children? Understanding Early Care and Education Participation Among Immigrant Families and The Challenges of Change: Learning from the Child Care and Early Education Experiences of Immigrant Families. Ms. Matthews also tracks the use of Title I funds for early education.
Prior to joining CLASP, Ms. Matthews held 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 previously worked as a Program Associate at Human Rights Watch. Ms. Matthews earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s Degree from The George Washington University.
Rachel Schumacher
Senior Fellow
rschumacher@clasp.org / (202) 906-8005
Rachel Schumacher is Senior Fellow for Child Care and Early Education Policy at CLASP. Since joining CLASP in 1999, Ms. Schumacher’s work has focused on promoting early care and education policies that support both child development and the needs of working parents, especially for low-income families.
While at CLASP, Ms. Schumacher’s research and policy work has included understanding state approaches to integrating early education, examining available data to describe federally funded programs, and describing state financing decisions. Her work on integration issues includes the report titled Meeting Great Expectations: Integrating Early Education Program Standards in Child Care, in which the authors examined state pre-kindergarten programs and other state strategies to require participating child care providers to meet early education program standards that routinely exceed state child care licensing rules. Earlier she coauthored State Initiatives to Promote Early Learning: Next Steps in Coordinating Subsidized Child Care, Head Start and State Prekindergarten, which identified key challenges and responses in expanding early learning opportunities by drawing on the very distinct experiences of Georgia Pre-K, Massachusetts Community Partnerships for Children, and Ohio’s state Head Start expansion. Untapped Potential?: How States Contract Directly with Providers to Shore Up Child Care Choices for Low-Income Families, examined how states use contracts directly with child care providers to fill supply gaps and expand choices available to families. She has also studied the federal Head Start program and has authored a series of policy briefs describing Head Start children, families, teachers, and programs from 1997 to 2003. Other publications include: The Impact of TANF Funding on State Child Care Subsidy Programs, Child Care after Leaving Welfare: Early Evidence from State Studies, The Child Care and Development Fund: An Overview, and Welfare Reauthorization: An Early Guide to the Issues.
Prior to joining CLASP, Rachel worked on child and family issues at the local and state levels. Her past experience includes serving on the Board of the Cincinnati Association for the Education of Young Children and working as a staffer for a Massachusetts state legislator, specializing in part on early care and education issues. Ms. Schumacher earned a Master’s in Public Policy with a concentration in Child and Family Policy from the University of Chicago, Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy and a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University.
