Rachel Sheffield is a Research Fellow in welfare and family policy at The Heritage Foundation, where she focuses on reforming the nation’s welfare system and examines how trends in marriage and family connect to social mobility. Sheffield has also written on issues such as foster care reform, homelessness, educational choice, and child nutrition programs.

Besides her work at The Heritage Foundation, Sheffield spent several years at the U.S. Senate as a Senior Policy Advisor on the Joint Economic Committee. While there, she worked on the Social Capital Project, a multi-year research project headed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). She helped outline the priorities and policy agenda of the project and published multiple papers on topics such as family stability, unwed childbearing, connecting Americans to work, and healthy marriage and relationship education initiatives.

Sheffield’s work has been cited by or published in numerous media outlets including, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, and The Washington Times. She has also appeared on radio and TV programs throughout the country, including on Fox News, NPR, and EWTN.

Sheffield received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marriage, family and human development from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. While a student, Sheffield worked as a Research Assistant for the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center.

A native of Los Angeles, she currently resides in Arlington, VA.