Melissa Lazarín

Associate Director of Education Policy

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Melissa Lazarín is Associate Director of Education Policy at the Center for American Progress.  Prior to joining the Center, Melissa served as Director of Education Policy at First Focus, a national children’s advocacy organization, where she worked to advance federal legislation related to high school reform, early childhood education, educational opportunities for immigrants, and the impact of immigration enforcement on children of immigrants.    
 
Prior to First Focus, Melissa worked as associate director for education policy at the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. At NCLR, she led the organization’s high school reform portfolio and monitored federal legislation affecting K-12 English language learners and Latinos, standards-based reform, community-based education, and access to higher education. From 2002 to 2004, she represented NCLR as co-chair of the Hispanic Education Coalition, an ad hoc coalition of national organizations dedicated to improving educational opportunities for Latinos. 
 
Melissa also worked as a policy analyst with Social Policy Research Associates in Oakland, California, where she evaluated Job Corps, school-to-work, and workforce development programs, and participated in research examining race and ethnic relations in high schools. 
 
Melissa was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University and a master’s degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.