Mary Bissell is an attorney and an expert on a variety of policy issues affecting children and families, particularly child welfare issues. She formerly worked as an attorney and lobbyist at the Children’s Defense Fund and as a legislative assistant in the office of Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV). Before her experience on Capitol Hill, Ms. Bissell directed The Kinship Care Project at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia and the DC Kinship Care Coalition, Inc., a nonprofit organization she founded. She has written extensively for a broad range of publications, including The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and has appeared on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, and National Public Radio.

As a Fellow at the New America Foundation from 2004–2007, Ms. Bissell developed and promoted public policy solutions to America’s child welfare crisis, including solutions that focus on the need for expanded child and family support outside of foster care through public-private partnerships. She is currently working on a book on the child welfare system. Ms. Bissell is a graduate of Yale University and the Georgetown University Law Center, and is a member of the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Supreme Court bars. Her New America papers and articles can be accessed below.