Mary Ellen Wiggins

Mary Ellen Wiggins serves as America Forward’s Policy Advisor and is the Founder of Good Policy. For more than 20 years, Mary Ellen has worked at the intersection of policy design, program management, and cross-sector collaboration at the federal, state, and community levels, with expertise spanning early childhood and youth development, education and workforce programs, community-based services, and federal budget and appropriations. Prior to founding Good Policy, Mary Ellen served as Director of Policy and Research at the Forum for Youth Investment, and before that spent over a decade at the White House Office of Management and Budget, working with both Republican and Democratic administrations to design and launch policy initiatives promoting stronger outcomes and shared learning across sectors and levels of government. Mary Ellen began her career delivering community-based education and vocational services for youth in the United States and Central America, where she saw firsthand how fragmented policies and programs hold families back.