Megan Tackney

Megan Tackney, MPA, is a dedicated public servant with more than 15 years of experience advancing policy and advocacy on poverty alleviation, equity, and economic security. She is currently Director of Partnerships and Engagement for WorkRise, a research to action network focused on transforming the labor market for low-wage workers, hosted at the Urban Institute. She was previously Executive Director of the NYC Children’s Cabinet in the Office of the Mayor in New York City where she was responsible for driving coordination and efficiency across city departments and facilitating a holistic approach to children’s health, safety, and well-being. She was also Deputy Chief of Staff in the Deputy Mayor’s Office of Health and Human Services in NYC. Megan joined the City of New York after working with philanthropies Humanity United and the Novo Foundation to advance new solutions to labor and sex trafficking in the cities of Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Chicago. This first of its kind program supported municipal governments, worker centers, people with lived experience, and a media campaign to bridge the prevention of exploitation with local efforts to address racial equity, labor rights, social services, immigration, and criminal justice reform.

Prior to that she was appointed by the Obama Administration to serve as Special Advisor to the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children for Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, she provided policy and programmatic support for a diverse set of large-scale federal human services programs, including those addressing human trafficking, migrant unaccompanied children at the border, refugees, early childhood education, domestic violence, family homelessness, and child welfare. She additionally spent six years with the National Women’s Law Center.

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