Dan Lesser

Dan Lesser has been a senior attorney with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law's public benefits unit since 1996. He specializes in child care and early education, immigrant access to public benefits, TANF program, tax and budget, and climate change issues. Dan helped design the Illinois child care assistance program for low-income working parents in 1997 and since then has led several successful efforts to improve that program through changes in governing laws and program policies and increases in funding. Dan received Action for Illinois Children's Unsung Hero award in 2002 for his work. Dan has also played a leading role in coalitions that have succeeded in restoring immigrants' access to public benefits that was lost pursuant to the 1996 federal welfare law. Dan is also in charge of the Shriver Center's annual Congressional Poverty Scorecard project. Before joining the Center, Dan worked at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago for eight years after graduating from Northwestern University School of Law in 1984.