Brittany Birken
CED Director and Principal Adviserbrittany.birken@atl.frb.org
Areas of Expertise: Benefits cliffs, childcare, workforce development
brittany.birken@atl.frb.org
Areas of Expertise: Benefits cliffs, childcare, workforce development
brittany.birken@atl.frb.org
Areas of Expertise: Benefits cliffs, childcare, workforce development
Brittany Birken serves as a director and principal adviser for Community and Economic Development and co-leads the Atlanta Fed’s Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity. In this role, Birken specializes in the identification of barriers and solutions to career advancement for low-income working families. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, she was a faculty member at the University of Florida’s College of Education. She has also served as the director of Florida’s Office of Early Learning and as chief executive of the Florida Children’s Council, the umbrella organization for children’s services councils.
Birken has produced research used by business leaders and policymakers to develop strategies that improved economic outcomes for low-income working families with young children by fostering sustainable educational infrastructure for talent development. Birken is an affiliate of the University of Florida Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies and a member of Leadership Florida. Florida Trend named her one of the Florida 500 Most Influential Leaders in the years 2021-2024. She is a recipient of the Federal Reserve Board's 2023 Janet L. Yellen Award for Excellence in Community Development. She holds a PhD from Florida State University.
Atlanta Fed Community and Economic Development Discussion Papers
2021
2021-1
Restructuring the Eligibility Policies of the Child Care and Development Fund to Address Benefits Cliffs and Affordability: Florida as a Case Study
Brittany Birken, Elias Ilin, Alexander Ruder, and Ellyn Terry
June 2021
Articles
2024
Brittany Birken, John Rees, Alexander Ruder, and Ellyn Terry. "Career Coaching with the CLIFF Tools: Lessons from the Implementation Evaluation." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate, July 16, 2024.
Brittany Birken and Herman Knopf. "Childcare At What Cost? Positioning the Price of Childcare within the Context of Household Income." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate, April 11, 2024.
2023
Brittany Birken and Julie Siwicki. "Under Construction: A Community-Based Blueprint for Economic Mobility." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate, September 22, 2023.
Brittany Birken, Austin McTier, Alexander Ruder, and Alvaro Sánchez. "The Potential of One Change." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate, August 1, 2023.
2022
Brittany Birken and Alexander Ruder. "CLIFF Dashboard Evaluations: Insights from Three State Pilots." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate, August 30, 2022.
2021
Brittany Birken and Ellyn Terry. "What Can Be Done about the Childcare Benefits Cliff? A Case Study in Florida." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate, June 21, 2021.
2020
Brittany Birken. "Dollars and Sense: Affordability of Childcare." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate (COVID-19 Publications 2020).
Brittany Birken, Ann Carpenter, Karen Leone de Nie, Sameera Fazili, Mary Hirt, David A. Jackson, Sarah Miller, Patrick Pontius, Julie Siwicki, Sarah Stein, Nisha Sutaria, and Janelle Williams. "Tackling the Unknown Together: Community Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic". Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate (March/April 2020).
Mels de Zeeuw and Brittany Birken. "School's Out: Childcare Needs among Essential Health Care Workers and First Responders." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Partners Upate (March/April 2020).
Special Publications
2023
Brittany Birken. "A Late Start: Understanding Public Investments in Education." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, May 9, 2023.
2022
Katherine Townsend Kiernan, Benjamin Horowitz, and Brittany Birken. "Childcare Affordability Affects Labor Market and Family Choices." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, January 12, 2022.