Lissa Bell is the Senior Policy Associate for Work and Family Programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families in Washington, D.C.   She has helped develop the Partnership’s National Campaign for Paid Leave, an initiative to make family and medical leave more accessible and affordable.   Bell coordinates efforts to build coalitions of state legislators, advocates, and researchers across the country.  She also provides extensive support in the form of research, strategy, expert testimony, media, and fiscal analyses as states move forward in their advocacy for paid leave. 

Bell has extensive experience organizing, and providing policy support for, various constituencies, including women, labor and low-income communities.  Before joining the National Partnership, she served as Policy Director for the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO), a regional network of state community groups that serves as a voice for lower-income families throughout the Pacific Northwest.  Prior to that, Bell was Program Associate at the Labor Project for Working Families, where she supported unions in bargaining for work and family contract provisions and advocating for work and family legislation.

Bell attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Masters in Sociology. 

Expertise: FMLA