Mary Jo Bane, a former assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), returned to the Kennedy School of Government as a professor of public policy on Jan. 1, announced Dean Joseph Nye.

Bane was a member of the Kennedy School faculty from 1981 to 1994, with a leave of absence for service in New York state and the federal government. She left the Kennedy School in 1992 to become the commissioner of social services for the State of New York before her appointment to HHS by President Clinton in 1993.

ìFew people understand the complex economic, social, and political dynamics affecting poverty in America better than Mary Jo Bane,î said Nye. ìSheís a tremendous source of insight and experience for the Kennedy School, and we are very fortunate to have her back.î

Nye said that in addition to continuing her research in social policy, Bane would be teaching courses in public sector management.

ìThere is nothing more important, in these times of tremendous need for public action combined with skepticism about government, than training the next generation of public managers and policy analysts,î said Bane. ìThe Kennedy School is the best place in the country to do that, and I am delighted to be rejoining its distinguished faculty.î

As assistant secretary, Bane oversaw the Administration for Children and Families, the HHS agency that brings together over 60 federal programs, including Head Start, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Child Support Enforcement, Foster Care and Adoption Assistance, Child Welfare, Social Services, Low Income Home Energy Assistance block grants, and the Family Preservation/Family Support Services program. ACF's budget exceeds $30 billion. Bane also co-chaired President Clinton's Working Group on Welfare Reform, Family Support and Independence.

Bane was responsible for reviewing and approving welfare reform demonstrations in 40 states. She resigned as assistant secretary after President Clinton signed the 1996 welfare law.

Previously, Bane was the commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services, where she had also served as executive deputy commissioner from 1984 to 1986. Before that, she was a member of the Kennedy School faculty, most recently as the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy and director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. In 1980-81, she served as deputy assistant secretary for planning and budget at the U.S. Department of Education. From 1977 to 1980, she was associate professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and an associate director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Harvard Joint Center for Urban Studies. She was associate director of the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College from 1975 to 1977. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia from 1963 to 1965, and as a junior high school teacher from 1967 to 1971.

Bane, 54, is the author of numerous books and articles in the area of human services and public policy, including Here to Stay: American Families in the Twentieth Century (1976), The State and the Poor in the 1980s (1984), and Gender and Public Policy: Case and Comments (1993). She is the author, with David Ellwood, of a number of articles on poverty and welfare, and a book Welfare Realities: From Rhetoric to Reform (1994).

Bane earned her doctorate in education and a master of arts in teaching from Harvard University. She received a bachelor of science degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.