Caterina Crean

Caterina leads training and technical assistance to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs and partners, including federal, state, territory, tribal, and local stakeholders. Her TA provides high-quality, replicable strategies to programs that support individuals on their paths toward economic self-sufficiency and increased family well-being. Caterina is responsive to the changing landscape of economic well-being. She uses proactive TA to foster program improvement with an understanding of case management, career pathways, job-driven training, executive functioning, and trauma-informed care strategies.

Caterina has a proven track record of coaching organizations as they develop and implement strategies and systems that help American families. She uses roundtables, webinars, trainings, site exchanges, individualized coaching, and multi-year policy academies — as TA provisions to help TANF agencies and tribes across the U.S. transform their program innovations into service improvements for their participants.

Caterina’s community-based experiences are the foundation of her career in poverty solutions. Through the Office of Community Services’ Assets for Independence program, she assisted municipalities in creating equity agendas and local organizations in applying for federal funding. Caterina also helped dozens of organizations apply for and receive over $24 million in grant funding that supported local asset-building initiatives through tailored TA. This, in turn, helped low-income individuals realize their long-term goals of homeownership, higher education, and capitalizing on small businesses.