Stephanie Acker

Stephanie (Steph) Ackert is a researcher and expert in public policy and institutional communication based at the Migration Policy Centre of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies in Florence. Her research focuses on refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and integration processes, with a particular emphasis on the concept of ‘home’, child protection and the autonomy of people forced to migrate.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Gordon College and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2015, she was selected as a United States Presidential Management Fellow, a prestigious federal programme for training leaders in the US public administration. She was also a Policy Leader Fellow at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute in 2021–2022.

Throughout her career, she has held senior positions at the US Department of Health and Human Services, working on issues relating to refugees, human trafficking and migrant children, and was one of the lead officials responsible for programmes to tackle housing poverty and homelessness in the city of Boston. She has also coordinated innovative social initiatives and community programmes aimed at young people and families.

Her best-known publications and research include *Beauty and Beautification in Refugees’ Lives and Their Implications for Refugee Policy* and *Faith Actors and the Global Compact on Refugees*, works which have contributed to the international debate on migration policies and the inclusion of refugees.