Research and Public Policy Coordinator
Women’s Initiative for Self Employment
Oakland, CA
The Women’s Initiative provides business training services to low income women, helping them start their own businesses and move towards self-sufficiency. Since 2006, I’ve been working in the Research and Public Policy department, managing our research process. We conduct interviews with graduates of the program one through five years after they finish the program, and have the largest and most in-depth database on microenterprise in the United States. We use this data to make improvements in our own programming, but also to contribute to the growing body of evidence on the effectiveness of microenterprise as a poverty alleviation strategy internationally and provide support for policy initiatives that make it easier for low-income entrepreneurs to succeed in their businesses. I work on a daily basis with women from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and I feel that my major in WGSS has enabled me to better understand their different experiences of race, class, language, sexual orientation, age and nationality. This not only lends greater depth to our analysis, but also helps me to better meet their needs.