| Lissa Bell
Lissa Bell is the senior policy associate for work and family programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families in Washington, D.C. She has helped develop the partnership's National Campaign for Family Leave Benefits, an initiative to make family and medical leave more accessible and affordable for millions of Americans. Lissa Bell coordinates efforts to build coalitions of state legislators and advocates across the country. She also provides extensive support in the form of research, strategy, expert testimony, media, and fiscal analyses as states move forward in their advocacy for paid leave. At least 28 states have considered paid leave legislation. Lawmakers championing such legislation include elected officials from both major parties and all layers of government, ranging from council members to governors. The coalitions advocating for such legislation now include organizations representing employers, seniors, women, children, parents, and labor.
Bell has extensive experience organizing and providing policy support for various constituencies, including women, labor, and low-income communities. Before joining the National Partnership, she served as policy director for the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO), a regional network of state community groups that serves as a voice for lower-income families throughout the Pacific Northwest. Prior to that, Bell was program associate at the Labor Project for Working Families, where she helped build the San Francisco Bay Area Labor/Community Coalition on Work and Family and supported unions at the local, state, and national levels who were bargaining for work and family contract provisions and advocating for work and family legislation.
Bell attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a bachelor of arts in anthropology and a master's degree in sociology. She is the recipient of many fellowships, grants, and awards, including those by Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
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