Senior Co-Director, PolicyLab
Kathleen Noonan is a lawyer and full-time member of the General Pediatrics Division at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. At Children’s Hospital, she is the managing director and policy director at PolicyLab, a cross-disciplinary research and policy center focused on children’s public health and well-being. She is also adjunct faculty for the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars at the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to Children’s Hospital, Ms. Noonan was founding associate director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania where she worked to identify strategies, information, and tools to help philanthropists achieve greater social impact, particularly in the areas of urban education and global health. Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Noonan spent seven years as a senior associate and engagement manager with Casey Strategic Consulting, the consulting arm of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. While at Casey, Ms. Noonan led engagements around the country aimed to produce significant public system reforms for the benefit of vulnerable children, families, and communities. Based on her experiences at Casey, Ms. Noonan recently co-authored an article for the American Bar Association, Journal of Law and Social Inquiry, on legal accountability in child welfare and other public welfare entitlement programs.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Noonan was a practicing attorney at the Boston firm of Hill & Barlow where she focused on real estate, specifically involving the use of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in affordable housing projects. She served as a law clerk to United States District Judge Morris E. Lasker and has worked in public policy positions in New York City with the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Inc., and Bank Street College of Education, Division of Social Policy.
Research Interests
Behavioral health
Child welfare
Family and parenting support
Contact Information
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Select Publications
Mekonnen R, Noonan K, Rubin DM. Achieving better health care outcomes for children in foster care. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2009;56(2):405-15.
Noonan K, Sabel C, Simon WH. Legal accountability in the service-based welfare state: Lessons from child welfare reform. Law and Social Inquiry. In press, 2009.
Feudtner C, Noonan K. Poorer health: The persistent and protean connections between poverty, social inequality, and child well-being. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(7):668-70.
