Anna Jefferson

Anna Jefferson is a nationally recognized expert on guaranteed income, consumer finance, U.S. housing policy, and innovative qualitative methods to make policy research more person-centered. Doing so furthers her commitment to expanding equitable access to the research process and to improving the quality and scope of evidence used in support of policy. 

Over her career in policy research and evaluation since 2011, Dr. Jefferson has played leadership roles on over a dozen evaluations and policy-relevant research projects for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and state, local, and nonprofit clients as a principal investigator, project director, and task leader. 

The unifying theme of Dr. Jefferson's portfolio of housing research is people’s personal experiences with their housing, and its reverberating effects in their lives: from financial stability to well-being, senses of identity and belonging, and the interplay of these human needs with complex capital markets. This has brought her insight into housing policies including the Housing Choice Voucher program, public housing, housing counseling, rapid re-housing, asset building, and financial literacy and coaching. This body of her work includes leading the first ethnographic research and the first participatory research sponsored by HUD and the first participatory research conducted by the New York City Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity.

Dr. Jefferson was co-principal investigator on a body of numerous mixed methods randomized controlled trials of city-level guaranteed income pilots across the U.S. These pilots tested varying levels of one-year unconditional monthly cash transfers to different groups, including single parents, young adults, and households with low incomes. While many of the effects varied depending on participants’ life circumstances, these studies consistently found that the cash improved participants’ ability to cover emergency expenses and improved parents’ sense of satisfaction, engagement, and self-efficacy while receiving the payments. 

Prior to joining AIR, Dr. Jefferson worked at Abt Global.