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Tanya T. Gassenheimer is a Senior Policy Manager with the Child Welfare team at the National Center for Youth Law. Her work centers on: stopping the child welfare system's harmful interventions into the lives of youth and their families and communities; honoring what communities are already doing to care for one another; and contributing to building what does not yet exist that thecommunities deserve. She engages in legislative advocacy, campaign work, coalition building, public education, and narrative shifting. Throughout her advocacy, Tanya seeks to center Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and other targeted youth, families, and communities.

Over the course of her legal career prior to joining the National Center for Youth Law, Tanya has defended tenants in subsidized housing against eviction; represented youth experiencing homelessness in a variety of legal matters; and engaged in policy advocacy focused on keeping families together, supported in their communities, and out of the foster system. Tanya holds law and bachelor's degrees from Georgetown University and an master's in social work from Columbia University. She integrates social work and legal perspectives in all her work.