Erika Brown is a Researcher at the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley. A social epidemiologist by training, she seeks to improve population health and equity through data-driven policy insights. In her role at CPL, Erika works with government partners to enhance data linkages and identify how social safety-net programs can be made more equitable, accessible, and successful at promoting all facets of wellbeing within her beloved and complex home state.

Before joining the lab, Erika spent a decade working with academic, nonprofit, and public agencies to evaluate the uptake and health impacts of North American socioeconomic and nutritional interventions. She has leveraged a variety of datasets to assess policy-relevant research questions including predictors of Earned Income Tax Credit receipt, the impacts of eviction moratoria on eviction filing rates, and the influence of child tax credit reform on household food insecurity rates in Canada. Spurred by an interest in how growing inter-sector efforts can best address the root causes and downstream effects of poverty, Erika most recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network at UC San Francisco, where she primarily studied healthcare organizations’ efforts to address material deprivation within their patient populations and broader communities.

Erika holds a PhD in Epidemiology and MPH in Epidemiology/Biostatistics from UC Berkeley and BA in American Studies and Community Health from Tufts University. Outside of work, you can find her running, writing limericks, and (mis)identifying the Bay Area’s vast array of flora and fauna.