Cara Baldari is the Senior Policy Director for Poverty & Family Economics, Housing and Homelessness at First Focus. She is responsible for leading cross-cutting initiatives to reduce child poverty in the U.S., with an emphasis on reducing racial disparities and increasing federal investment for income supports that are proven to support healthy child development and educational attainment. In this role, she leads the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, of which First Focus is a founding member.

Her work is also centered on developing policies to address child, family and youth homelessness in the U.S. that take a two-generation approach to meet the unique, developmental needs of homeless children and unaccompanied youth and coordinate homeless assistance with education, early childhood, child welfare and other systems serving these children and youth.

In her six years at First Focus, she has worked on a number of issues affecting children living in poverty, including child and family homelessness, child welfare policy, childhood asthma, child nutrition, and children’s health policy. She co-authored America’s Report Card 2012: Children in the U.S., which was co-released with Save the Children and provides a holistic picture of unmet needs in five areas of a child’s life: economic security, early childhood education, K-12 education, permanence and stability, and health and safety.

Before coming to First Focus, her previous experience includes providing direct legal representation low-income clients in landlord tenant disputes in Pittsburgh, PA. Through this work, she witnessed firsthand the policy changes that are needed to prevent homelessness and better assist low-income families.

Cara received a JD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.