Maretta McDonald

Maretta McDonald is a National Poverty Fellow for 2022–2024 in residence at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). McDonald is a 2021–2022 American Sociological Association (ASA) Minority Fellow and a member of the inaugural 2021–2022 cohort of ASA/NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant awardees. Her current research interests are racial inequality, criminology/criminal justice, family, gender, spatial analyses, and public policy. Her dissertation, “Examining Child Support Enforcement in the Deep South: An Analysis of Race, Gender, Class, and Place,” examines the association of the agency’s policies and practices with macrolevel spatial and racial inequality, which brings all these areas into conversation with each other. McDonald also brings a practitioner’s lens to her research. She worked as a Child Support Enforcement officer and supervisor before entering graduate school. McDonald earned her Ph.D. in sociology at Louisiana State University. McDonald is mentored by IRP Affiliate Sarah Halpern-Meekin and Lauren Antelo, Senior Advisor in the Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary at the Administration for Children and Families.