As executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Taifa provides strategic direction on public policy research and data analysis. She leads a team covering a wide range of policy areas including state budget, taxes and economic development, health care, education, anti-poverty, and economic mobility.

Taifa brings 20 years of experience in strategic communications, public policy research and data analysis in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. Prior to joining the GBPI team, she served as the policy and communications director for Georgia Family Connection Partnership where she co-managed the Georgia KIDS COUNT project and monitored public policy and its impact on children, families and communities. Additionally, Taifa has held various positions with the Georgia Academy for Children and Youth Professionals and MBIA Muni Services/Municipal Tax Bureau Company in Philadelphia.

Taifa is an accomplished motivational speaker and avid education and family advocate. She has served on host of statewide and national steering committees, advisory boards and coalitions. She served in various roles in youth, children’s, and family ministries. In her community, Taifa has served on various committees and boards, including the Chamber of Commerce education committee, Henry County Education Foundation, Ferst Foundation of Henry County’s Community Action Team, school PTO and the Henry County Economics and Education Alliance. She’s most proud of mentoring two young girls for the last four years.

She was an education policy fellow with the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education’s Class of 2009 Education Policy Fellowship Program, as well as a graduate of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development. Taifa holds a bachelor’s in politics with economics from Mount Holyoke College and a master’s in public management and policy from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, with a concentration in economic development and financial management. She has been quoted in both state and national publications, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Macon Telegraph, NPR Atlanta and Georgia Trend magazine, to name a few. Taifa was named 5 under 40 by H Magazine in 2011, and a Woman of Substance in the Southern Journal Magazine in 2013.