Jacqueline (Jacque) Whearty is a Policy Manager at the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center. In this role, she leads the Economic and Family Supports team in conducting rigorous and comprehensive literature reviews, tracking important child and parent policies, and evaluating the state policy levers that promote equitable outcomes for families in this area.
Jacque’s policy expertise lies in the intersection between single parenthood and parents’ engagement with economic and family supports (e.g., child support payments, informal cash support, home visiting). As an example, her dissertation work focused on the longitudinal trends in and variations between nonresidential fathers’ formal and informal child support payments following divorce. She aimed to strengthen the impact of her academic research with policy research experiences at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Texas Office of the Attorney General Child Support Division, and Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Jacque holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Human Development and Family Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a B.A. in Applied Psychology and Human Development from Boston College. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and mischievous Bernese Mountain Dog pup, Thor. Outside of work, Jacque enjoys spending quality time with her family, exploring Austin’s ever-growing food and music scene, and finding new recipes to bake and share with friends.
