Diana Spatz

Diana Spatz is the founding director of LIFETIME, Low-Income Families’ Empowerment through Education, a statewide organization of low-income parents who are pursuing postsecondary education and training as the means to get their families off welfare – and out of poverty – for good. A former welfare recipient herself, Diana founded LIFETIME in 1996 upon graduating with honors from the University of California Berkeley with a BA in Political Economies of Industrialized Societies. Also in 1996, Diana won the IF Stone Award for Journalism from The Nation magazine for “Welfare Reform Skips School,” an article on the role of higher education in welfare reform. Diana currently chairs the Education and Training Task Force for the statewide advocacy group, Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency, and is a member of the California State Legislature Joint Committee to End Poverty in California (EPIC).