Professor Melissa S. Kearney received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002, where she studied on a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Harry S Truman Fellowship. She received her BA in 1996 from Princeton University, graduating with Highest Honors. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Maryland in 2006, Professor Kearney had been a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an assistant professor at Wellesley College. Her primary fields of interest are public finance and labor, with special interests in social policy issues and government programs relevant to low-income populations. She teaches in the area of public finance. She is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.