Biography
As Unemployment Insurance Program Director, Flannery O’Rourke works to enhance the accessibility, scope, and reliability of unemployment insurance (UI) for workers by developing and advancing worker-centered reforms of state and federal UI policy and supporting and partnering with other federal, state, and local UI advocates.
Prior to joining NELP, O’Rourke served as a staff attorney at the Virginia Poverty Law Center (VPLC). While at VPLC, she advocated for low-wage and unemployed workers in the Commonwealth, championing the passage of several critical changes to Virginia’s UI law. Before becoming an attorney, O’Rourke spent 16 years as a research associate at the University of Pittsburgh where she conducted National Institutes of Health-funded field research with low-income families. O’Rourke’s most recent publications are “In Land We Trust?: Navigating Anglo-American Barriers to Native Nation Housing Development,” featured in the fall 2022 edition of The Fee Simple, and “Substance Use Screening and Prevention for Adolescents in Pediatric Primary Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial using the Family Check-Up,” published in Research on Child Adolescent Psychopathology (Vol. 51, 2023).
Education
2002 Bachelor of Science University of Pittsburgh
2019 Master of Studies in Law University of Pittsburgh
2022 Juris Doctor University of Richmond
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