M.A. in sociology, Harvard University; B.A. in sociology, University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D. in sociology, Harvard University
Jessica Welburn Paige is a social scientist at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research interests include race and ethnicity, social mobility, culture, and qualitative methods. Her research has explored how African Americans navigate racism and discrimination and how they think about social mobility in the Post-Civil Rights Era. She is completing a book manuscript titled Die Hard City: Public Sector Contraction and the Experiences of African Americans in Detroit (under contract with Columbia University Press). Since starting at RAND in 2021, Paige’s work has focused on a number of issues related to dimensions of inequality including reparations policies for African Americans, attitudes and experiences of active duty service members and veterans, and the relationship between employment and having a criminal record. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.
