Lois Joy

Background

About Lois Joy

I currently serve as Director of Research at JFF where I lead research and evaluation on education and workforce programs and policies aimed at building pathways into high opportunity careers especially people in low-wage jobs, those unemployed, and those not participating in the labor market. I recently served as PI to the NSF funded research “Impacts of Work-Based-Learning (WBL) on Community College Technology and Careers,” which demonstrated the importance of technology internships as a bridge to employment for community college technology students. I currently direct research and evaluation on education and workforce programs to support Black learners and workers, apprenticeship and short-term credentials as pathways into high opportunity careers, and good green jobs. As a director, I lead in the development of funding and supervise staff and external evaluators. I have expertise in econometric methods including quasi-experimental and RCT approaches and have led in the development and implementation of quantitative and qualitative research methods for analyzing structural education and labor market barriers to underrepresented group economic advancement. With over fifteen years of experience leading education and workforce evaluation and research, I have the expertise to coordinate and manage evaluation projects, develop and supervise evaluation, and analyze complex evaluation and research problems. Much of the research I have directed at JFF focuses on the middle-skills workforce, those who do not have a college degree, and for which large national datasets do not adequately allow researchers to measure participation, equity, outcomes, and implementation. To develop an understanding of what is working, for whom and under what conditions in this education to workforce ecosystem has required novel strategies for data gathering through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, along with analysis of post-secondary administrative data and state data systems. I have a deep understanding of what is possible and feasible to test and analyze in these harder to assess ecologies along with the budgets, staffing, and timelines needed to do a good job. Importantly, in all of my research at JFF, I have communicated findings to a variety of audiences including researchers and evaluators, educators, policy-makers, learners and workers, and administrative leaders.