About MDRC
Rubino currently serves as the resource manager on the Social Innovation Fund’s WorkAdvance and SaveUSA studies, and for MDRC’s portfolio of housing projects, which includes the Family Self Sufficiency Program Evaluation, the Rent Reform Demonstration, and the Choice Neighborhoods Demonstration. In this role, she works with project directors and task leaders to manage their projects’ budget and staffing plans, and serves as a liaison to the relevant funding agencies, subcontractors, and other outside partners. Rubino also assists with site recruitment, random assignment processes, and technical assistance. Prior to joining MDRC, Rubino worked for community-based organizations serving individuals with histories of involvement in the criminal justice system, and has over 15 years of project-management experience in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Long Island University, where she studied reference services for diverse populations.
-
MDRC Publications
-
Other Publications
-
Projects
Even in good economic times, many adults in the United States have trouble finding jobs that pay enough to support their families. Wages for those without a college degree, for example, have remained flat in real terms for decades. One policy response has been to help these workers build more skills, with promising findings from recently evaluated sector-based programs...
Richard Hendra, Barbara S. Goldman, Stephanie Rubino, Kristin Porter, Erika Lundquist, Stephen Freedman, David Navarro, Melissa Wavelet, Alexandra Pennington, Caroline Morris, Audrey Yu, Edith YangTANF Data Innovation ( TDI ) is a new national initiative to support Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF ) agencies as they harness the full potential of using administrative records data to improve program administration, payment integrity, and outcomes for low-income families. Launched in 2017, TDI is sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research, and...
Richard Hendra, Kristin Porter, Stephanie Rubino, Colleen Sommo, Mark van Dok, Zarni Htet, Camille Préel-Dumas, Jonathan BigelowAcross the social sector, government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations are all benefiting from greater access both to more detailed and frequent data and to a variety of options for increased computing power. With data-science tools and guidance in applying them, practitioners can harness multiple sources of data to gain new insights about the individuals they serve, the contexts in which they operate, their staff members, and their program features. When such tools are incorporated into daily operations in a responsible way, they can help practitioners improve their programs and the lives of those they serve.
Carolyn Hill, M. Victoria Quiroz Becerra, Stephanie Rubino, Samantha Wulfsohn, Gilda Azurdia, Marissa Strassberger, Rachael MetzThe official poverty rate for the U.S. population is high, at 13.5 percent, and the rate among children is higher still, at 19.7 percent. The body of research examining deep poverty, severe deprivation, and stress associated with poverty in adults has grown steadily with continued interest in recent years; however, qualitative research examining the experiences and...
James A. Riccio, Donna Wharton-Fields, Nina Castells, Stephanie Rubino, Keith Olejniczak, Joshua Vermette, Hannah Dalporto, Gloriela Iguina-Colón, Annie Utterback, Henry KanengiserMyGoals for Employment Success is a new workforce program intended to help recipients of federal housing subsidies who are not employed find work, build careers, and advance toward greater self-sufficiency. The program incorporates an innovative employment coaching model that is informed by current literature in behavioral psychology on executive functioning skills and...
Payday loans are short-term loans geared toward working-class and lower middle-class households that possess access to bank accounts and can prove sustained employment. People may use them and other alternative credit instruments to deal with unexpected expenses or simply to make ends meet between paychecks. While the loans are expensive, they may be one of the only...
Nandita Verma, James A. Riccio, Donna Wharton-Fields, Stephen Freedman, Betsy L. Tessler, Stephanie Rubino, David Navarro, Michelle Ware, Joshua Vermette, Nicole MorrisThe Family Self-Sufficiency ( FSS ) program is the main federal program for increasing employment and earnings and reducing reliance on government subsidies among recipients of housing subsidies. Created in 1990, FSS is administered by state and local public housing agencies with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD ). In 2014, HUD...
James A. Riccio, Gilda Azurdia, Edith Yang, Donna Wharton-Fields, Nandita Verma, Caroline Schultz, Jocelyn Page, Frieda Molina, Cynthia Miller, Richard Hendra, Barbara S. Goldman, Stephen Freedman, Jared Smith, Mark van Dok, Natasha Piatnitskaia, Betsy L. Tessler, Stephanie Rubino, Sharon RowserThe Social Innovation Fund ( SIF ) , an initiative enacted under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, deploys millions of dollars in public-private funds to expand effective solutions in three issue areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development and school support. This work seeks to create a catalog of proven approaches that can be replicated...