Jasleen Kaur, PhD

LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.

Email - jasleenkaur1117@utexas.edu, jasleenkaur1117@gmail.com, jasleen17.kaur@gmail.com

Current CV | LinkedIn | GitHub

Bio:

I am a policy researcher, data analyst, and author driven by a single conviction: that rigorous evidence, wielded with compassion, can build a more just and equitable world.

As the Innovative Prosecution Solutions Analyst at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, I lead the Smart Prosecution initiative — bringing data analytics, technology, and trauma-informed approaches to modernize how justice is delivered. This work sits at the intersection of everything I have always cared about: using evidence to strengthen systems, center communities, and ensure that policy serves people rather than the other way around.

My academic foundation is built on years of immersion in the science of what works. I hold a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin, where my dissertation examined gender dynamics in international development organizations through the analysis of over 3,500 Asian Development Bank projects. My research expertise spans experimental design, causal inference, and large-scale impact evaluation, shaped through roles at prestigious institutions including J-PAL South Asia. I specialize in translating complex statistical findings into clear, actionable recommendations — because the most rigorous analysis means nothing if it never reaches the people who need it.

That belief in accessible, people-centered knowledge is also what led me to write The Impact Evaluation Series for Children. Meet Momo and Puri — curious twins who ask the question every scientist asks: "But how do we REALLY know?" Through playground adventures and classroom discoveries, this innovative series teaches children the methods economists and researchers use to uncover true causes and effects — from randomized controlled trials to regression discontinuity — through simple, joyful stories. Because the seeds of analytical thinking, planted early, last a lifetime.

My writing is not confined to research and policy. Letters to My Twins is a deeply personal memoir written as letters from a mother to her children, tracing the tender, exhausting, and transformative journey of becoming a parent — raising twins far from home, navigating immigrant life, and discovering the many versions of herself along the way: mother, partner, scholar, and woman learning to hold it all together. It is, at its heart, a record of devotion.

Across every role I have held — researcher, analyst, advocate, author, mother — the thread has always been the same: a belief that evidence and empathy belong together, and that the work of understanding the world is always, ultimately, in service of the people living in it.