Throughout my career, my goal has been to produce evidence that changes policies and practices, leading to more efficient, effective, and equitable social investments. As a Federal Reserve Bank economist, I conducted research that directly informed both regional and macroeconomic policy decisions. Since joining Northeastern University in 2014, I have continued to focus on projects that bridge the gap between knowledge and practice working in partnership with a wide variety of community-based organizations, city departments, and state agencies.
My track record of policy impact led to the development of the Community to Community (C2C) Impact Accelerator, a $4.8M investment in community-engaged research across Northeastern University’s global network of 13 campus locations. Building on a $1M Institutional Challenge Grant, C2C mentors and trains faculty, provides executive education for policymakers, holds two annual policy convening events with over 200 participants, and maintains a multigenerational research lab of 30 post-doc, Ph.D., master, and undergraduate students.
Since 2022, C2C has also worked with external partners to put research into practice. One example is my work on summer youth employment, which has led to a first-in-the-nation Mayor’s Youth Jobs Guarantee, ensuring that every Boston Public School student seeking a summer job can now have one. Also, we launched a new Learn and Earn summer jobs program, serving over 200 low-income high school youth per year across Northeastern’s Boston and Oakland campus locations. In recognition of C2C’s success, I was awarded the inaugural Global Network Accelerator Award in 2023 by the Provost for creating “a model of how Northeastern University’s global network can be leveraged to create real and measurable change.”
