Heather Boushey

Heather Boushey is Senior Economist at American Progress. Her research focuses on employment, social policy, and family economic well-being. Much of her current work focuses on the Great Recession’s impact on workers and their families, as well as policies to promote job creation. She co-edited The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything (Simon & Schuster ebook, 2009) and was a lead author of “Bridging the Gaps,” a 10-state study about how low- and moderate-income working families are left out of work support programs. Her research has been published in academic journals and has been covered widely in the media, including regular appearances on the PBS Newshour and in The New York Times, where she was called one of the ‘most vibrant voices in the field.’ She also spearheaded a successful campaign to save the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation from devastating budget cuts.

Boushey received her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and her B.A. from Hampshire College. She has held an economist position with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute, where she was a co-author of their flagship publication, The State of Working America 2002/3. She grew up in a union family in Mukilteo, Washington, and now lives with her husband, Todd Tucker, in Washington, D.C.