Emmi Obara

Background

About Emmi Obara

Emmi Obara is a social science researcher focused on quantitative methods. As a Research Consultant at the Program on Policy Evaluation & Learning in the Pacific Northwest (previously the Value and Systems Science Lab) within the University of Washington School of Medicine, she collaborates on quantitative research designs and analyzes large healthcare system data sets. Previously, she was a Research Associate at MDRC in the Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment policy area. There, she was a data manager and quantitative study lead. She received her Ph.D. at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and studied social policy with a focus on the criminal legal system and the prison system. Her dissertation examines how individual and contextual factors are associated with the timing of returns to prison. During Emmi's Ph.D. she also worked on collaborative projects such as the Multi-state Study of Monetary Sanctions and the Seattle Minimum Wage Study. Prior to her doctoral studies, she was a research assistant at a social policy research firm, MEF Associates. Emmi assisted with site development to partner with sites seeking research expertise for their programs, working as a team member to design, implement, and evaluate programs in the domains of income insecurity, child support, adult education, TANF, SNAP, disability, employment, and youth violence prevention.