 Erika Kates, Ph.D.Senior Research ScientistErika Kates is working in two major research areas at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW): Gender and Justice, and Women’s Economic Development through Education. She has extensive experience in policy analysis and research, focusing mainly on low-income women, women of color and immigrants. In her previous job as research director at the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, at the University of Massachusetts Boston, she was responsible for conducting research on the economic inequities among women, women in prison, incidence of HIV/AIDS among women of color in MA, homeless women and children, working conditions of nursing and home care staff, mentoring and leadership, welfare recipients’ access to education and training, and women elected to public office. Her work on female offenders began when she was hired as the first criminal justice planner in Massachusetts, became a member of the state’s first Women and Criminal Justice organization, and directed a unique pre-trial diversion program for women arraigned in the Boston courts. She obtained her doctorate from the Heller School, conducting research on the ways in which women in state prisons in the Northeast used legal and quasi-legal strategies to address their numerous legal issues. This work acknowledged that although women are victimized and traumatized in many ways, it is important to acknowledge and assist their efforts in being agents of change. Her most recent research projects concern the family connections of women in prison in Massachusetts. In addition, for a period of over twenty years she has examined the intersection of welfare, workforce development and higher education policies in her work on access to education and training for low-income women, publishing many articles, monographs and book chapters on this topic. In 1996, she co-founded the Welfare, Education, Training Access Coalition at the Heller School of Graduate School of Policy and Management, at Brandeis University, directing the project for five years. She has involved low-income women as researchers, and facilitated the creation of low-income student support groups, and activist efforts. She provided testimony at U.S. Congressional debates on welfare reform in 1994 and 2002. She was included in a book on women who have made a contribution to gender equity in education (forthcoming) produced by Educational Development Center. Erika Kates has considerable experience with evaluation research theory and practice, having worked extensively on evaluation projects at the Harvard School of Education, and Tufts University. She often utilizes a participatory approach that actively involves multiple groups of stakeholders. She has taught courses on feminist perspectives on policy; research methods, and sociology at Smith College, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boston, and Tufts University.
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