Cajon High 

Marlysa Thomas

 

Marlysa Thomas is a Program Manager for the Savings and Financial Capability Team, where she builds capacity in non-profits working directly with low-income communities and helps government officials integrate financial capability in social service programs and strengthen existing programs. Marlysa has a particular focus on working with communities of color to advance efforts to close the racial wealth gap.

 

Prior to joining CFED, Marlysa’s work primarily focused on poverty alleviation from the lens of community development and legislation, with an emphasis on empowering communities of color. Most recently, Marlysa was the Program Expansion Coordinator for the Phillips Brooks House Association, where she worked on rolling out a replication strategy and toolkit to replicate a youth-to-youth home and service model nationwide, in order to reduce youth homelessness nationwide.

 

She previously worked on Capitol Hill with the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys and later with Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, where she drafted legislation aimed at supporting Black men and boys experiencing poverty. She was also instrumental when working with the D.C. Office of Human Rights, where she engaged in a joint effort with the Office of the Mayor and D.C. Public Schools to recommend policies that reduce truancy and reduce poverty among low- and-moderate income communities living in the D.C. area.

 

Marlysa currently serves as the Economic Empowerment Co-Chair for the NAACP and holds an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. with honors from the University of California, Berkeley.