The Team
Kristen Lewis is the Director and co-founder of Measure of America. She is co-author of two volumes of The Measure of America (Columbia University Press, 2008 and NYU Press, 2010) as well as well-being reports inspired by the UN Human Development Report series for California, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York City, the San Joaquin Valley, the Inland Empire, and Newark, NJ; and Marin, Los Angeles, Del Norte, Mendocino, and Sonoma Counties. Under her leadership, Measure of America has become the go-to source for annual statistics on teenagers and young adults who are neither working nor in school through its youth disconnection series and online mapping tool. Measure of America’s work is used across the country by federal, state, and local governments as well as the largest service providers and philanthropies in the nation and has guided the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars of philanthropic and government funding. She has also directed development of MOA data tools like DATA2GO.NYC and Mapping America that have been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York and the Cooper Hewitt: Smithsonian Design Museum and won top prizes for data democratization from the US Census Bureau.
Kristen has testified before Congress and contributes regularly to media outlets, with articles published in The Nation and Stanford Social Innovation Review, among other; research cited by The New York Times, Forbes, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, NPR, Slate, and Freakonomics; and frequent newspaper and radio interviews, including on The Brian Lehrer Show and Marketplace.
Before founding Measure of America with former UN colleague Sarah Burd-Sharps in 2007, Kristen was senior policy advisor to the Water and Sanitation Task Force of the United Nations Millennium Project, led by Jeffery Sachs, and was co-author of the task force report, Health, Dignity and Development: What Will It Take? (Earthscan, 2005). She previously worked at the United Nations for many years, first with UNIFEM and then in UNDP’s policy bureau, and has served as a consultant on gender equality, development indicators, and water governance for many international development organizations, including UNICEF and the World Bank. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College and a master in international affairs degree from Columbia University.
Alex Powers is the Associate Director of Measure of America. He is co-author of several Measure of America reports and award-winning data tools and leads the quantitative research efforts for Measure of America. Previously, he worked as a statistician for Everytown for Gun Safety, led an analytics team at JPMorganChase, and worked as a Program Associate at Measure of America. Alex holds a BA in World Politics from Hamilton College and an MPhil in Economic and Social History from the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, a lab focused on regional economic development.
Tara Shawa, Research Analyst, conducts quantitative and qualitative analysis, creates data visualizations, and contributes to new research initiatives on issues central to well-being. She recently graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Sociology.
Kate Harvey, Research Analyst, supports quantitative and qualitative analysis on issues central to well-being. Among her other duties, she also contributes to the data visualization and mapping efforts of Measure of America. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in American Studies and a minor in Civic Engagement.
ALUMNI
Former full-time Measure of America staff and their immediate next position are listed below, in order of recency:
Cara Wohnsigl – Research Associate → Research and Data Associate,
Rebecca Gluskin – Senior Data Scientist & Co-Director of the Mercury Project → Senior Director,
Laura Laderman – Chief Statistician → , Strength in Numbers Consulting Group
Rebecca Gluskin – Deputy Director & Chief Statistician → Senior Analytics Director, CVS Health
Jonas Johnson – Program Assistant → Johns Hopkins University, PhD Anthropology
Sarah Burd-Sharps – Co-Director and co-founder → Head of Research, Everytown for Gun Safety
Marina Recio – Program Assistant → Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Master in Landscape Architecture
Rupsha Basu – Program Assistant → New York University School of Law, JD
Alex Powers – Program Associate → University of Cambridge, Master of Philosophy in Economic and Social History
Patrick Guyer – Chief Statistician → Director of Research and Evaluation, The Energy Project
Diana Tung – Program Assistant → Executive Officer, Reprieve Australia
Ted Lechterman – Program Assistant → Princeton University, PhD Political Theory
OPPORTUNITIES
Any open positions will be posted on the Employment page of our parent organization, the Social Science Research Council.
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For media and all other inquiries, contact us at contact@measureofamerica.org