Episode # 36: Aly Rau Brodsky
Our debates often focus on what the statute says, how the program works, or what the top line data suggest. What we measure typically emphasizes the experiences of adults.
What gets lost is the fundamentally different way children experience the child welfare system; in time that passes more slowly, during disorienting experiences with strangers and disrupted family relationships.
That surfaces an uncomfortable question; how would we design policy differently if we defined its success by the actual impact it has on the children experiencing it?
This seemingly simple premise is an organizing principle across the work of today’s guest. Aly Rau Brodsky is a leader whose state and national safety net leadership changed what she sees as a serious policy idea.
She’s currently the Executive Vice President And Chief Strategy Officer at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREEOPP). In that role she also founded and leads the Center for Safe and Stable Futures.
Before that, she was Deputy Secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services and also Louisiana Works, where she oversaw the One Door to Work initiative.
We talked about why she sees the administrative design of policy as being equally important to its architecture, how she thinks about child-centric development of policy, and the way clarity creates capacity to scale a policy vision.
This one sharpened a lot of my thinking around the intersection of federal and state policy, and I know it will for yours too.
🎙️ We’re Hiring: WonkCast Production Assistants
As we produce more conversations like this, we’re expanding the team behind the microphone.
We’re looking for WonkCast Production Assistants to help transform conversations with the people shaping child and family policy into thoughtful, publish-ready episodes.
If that sounds like your kind of work, we’d love to hear from you. Email maria@childwelfarewonk.com with a brief introduction and any relevant experience.
