Pamela Joshi

Policy Research Director

Pamela Kumari Joshi is a senior research scientist and the associate director of the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. She is also the policy research director for diversitydatakids.org.

Joshi leads the development of policy equity assessments and policy indicators in the areas of income, work and family and in early childhood education. She also currently leads two federally funded research studies focused on evaluating improvements to the child care subsidy program and assessing whether subsidies affect children’s care continuity and education outcomes. Joshi spearheads efforts to identify how policy design and implementation can reduce racial/ethnic inequities, become more inclusive of immigrant families and reduce administrative burden. Her policy expertise and research include evaluating community-based interventions, systematic reviews, welfare, housing and family support programs, parental working conditions, nonstandard work shifts and racial/ethnic health disparities. She recently served as a senior advisor on racial equity at HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and currently serves as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s consensus study on the Causes and Consequences of the Child Opportunity Gap.

Prior to joining diversitydatakids.org, Joshi was a research scientist at RTI International and the Harvard Kennedy School. She holds a doctorate in social policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University, a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Miami University.

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