Mario Cardona

Mario is an accomplished executive leader with nearly 20 years of high-level experience in law and policy. He has been a political appointee to two Presidents, a scholar at one of the largest research universities in the country, a senior staff member in the United States Senate, a litigator at a national law firm, and... the chief policy officer for one of the country’s largest non-profits focused on early care and education.

Most recently, Mario served as the Senior Advisor for Early Childhood Development & Education for the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he played a pivotal role in shaping and executing President Biden’s early childhood agenda. He led the implementation of the President’s Executive Order to Increase Access to High-Quality Care, which included more than fifty executive actions designed to lower costs for families and improve job quality for care workers. These actions resulted in, among other things, regulations that reduced child care costs for over 100,000 low-income working families and increased Head Start teacher wages by an average of $10,000. Mario also spearheaded the development of the Biden Administration’s budget recommendations, including a proposal later adopted by the Harris-Walz campaign to guarantee families access to high-quality child care at an average cost of no more than $10 per day. He was also the founding director of policy for the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, where he continues to hold an affiliation as a Professor of Practice.

During the Obama Administration, Mario served as a senior advisor to the Domestic Policy Council focused on elementary and secondary education. He was instrumental in brokering the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind, and led the White House process to develop and promulgate the Act's implementing regulations. Mario is one of only a few individuals to have led education initiatives for the White House Domestic Policy Council under two presidents in its thirty-year history.

In the U.S. Senate, Mario was a senior aide to the Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. In this role, he was the principal author of the Child Care Development Block Grant Act of 2014, which comprehensively updated quality and safety standards in federally subsidized child care for the first time in nearly two decades. He also contributed to the passage of key legislation, including the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act.

Previously, Mario served as Chief of Policy, Practice, and Research for Child Care Aware of America, the nation’s leading voice for child care. Mario began his legal career at a national law firm, where he focused on complex commercial litigation and maintained a robust pro bono practice dedicated to advancing civil rights.

Experience

Following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.

Education

• The George Washington University Law School, JD, with honors
• Harvard University, Ed.M.
• The University of Texas at Austin, BA

Admissions

• California

Clerkships

• Judicial Law Clerk, The Honorable John D. Early, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (2017 - 2018)