Jillian Berk

Jillian Berk joined Mathematica in 2008. Her research focuses on employment and training programs for economically vulnerable populations, including dislocated workers, older workers, workers with disabilities, and juvenile offenders.

Berk is the project director for an evaluation of a grant to a consortium of 23 community colleges under the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program. Under the grant, community colleges are deploying strategies to improve retention and completion rates and to support people who are earning workforce credentials. Berk also serves as the deputy project director for the experimental Evaluation of Grants Serving Young Offenders and the quasi-experimental Evaluation of the Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Subsidy on COBRA Take-Up. In addition, she was a key researcher on the quasi-experimental Evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, the deputy project director for the Evaluation of Labor Market Information Improvement Grants, and a researcher for the Evaluation of Workforce Investment Act Waivers. Besides her primary research, Berk has provided technical assistance to state and local human service agencies to help them design short experimental evaluations to improve program effectiveness.

Previously, Berk worked as a research analyst at the Urban Institute. Her work has been published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University.