Dr. Pamela Joshi

Biography

Pamela Joshi is dedicated to improving social and economic policies while reducing the administrative burden of human service programs serving historically underserved communities, families, and children. As part of the Institute for Equity, Child Opportunity & Healthy Development (IECOHD), her research examines structural factors, such as job quality and segregation, as well as system-level barriers, including exclusionary eligibility criteria and complex applications, that shape equitable access to essential resources and opportunities, ultimately driving health and well-being outcomes. Joshi addresses the lack of systematic attention to equity in policy analysis, leading to the development of the Policy Equity Assessment (PEA) framework, a tool for evaluating racial equity in public policies affecting children’s healthy development. She conducts research in partnership with government agencies, policy research organizations, and community-based groups, securing funding from federal agencies and foundations. Notably, she co-leads a study with UnidosUS on the barriers Hispanic immigrant families face in accessing state-level paid leave benefits and the Massachusetts Child Care Research Partnership, which evaluates innovations in child care subsidy policies. Joshi serves as the policy research director for diversitydatakids.org and disseminates findings through peer-reviewed publications, policy briefs, data visualizations, and popular press contributions. Her work appears in journals that span health, employment, family science, child development, and social services. Joshi brings an equity perspective to diverse policy discussions and has served as a senior policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Human Services Policy, in addition to being a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Child Opportunity Gap consensus study. She currently provides service to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Community Development Research Advisory Council, facilitating research collaborations related to actionable assessments of policy effectiveness accessible from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation.

Research Interests