Samina Sattar

Samina Sattar studies the implementation and impact of social programs with the aim of improving federal, state, and local policymaking. Her work explores the personal and structural barriers to employment for job seekers—including youth, public assistance recipients, and people involved with the justice system—and examines promising strategies and interventions, including Registered Apprenticeship, jail-based job search assistance, and reemployment services for the long-term unemployed.

Sattar is the deputy director of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Implementation Study. She leads the collection and analysis of data to understand states’ progress implementing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act as well as the range of strategies that states and local workforce areas are using to achieve a more integrated workforce system. She also plays a key role on the State Apprenticeship Expansion Grant Study, which assesses state and industry intermediary efforts to expand apprenticeship and improve the diversity of apprentices. She recently directed the Workforce Systems Strategies project, a part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s WorkforceGPS website and a collection of more than 1,100 profiles that summarize evaluation reports, policy and practice briefs, and how-to guides published on the topic of workforce development, offering key information on program planning, implementation, and continuous improvement. In addition, she led the development and release of a series of issue briefs and grantee-focused webinars based on findings from a study of the Linking to Employment Activities Pre-release grants, which established jail-based American Job Centers in 20 sites across the country and linked people leaving jails with the local workforce system.

Sattar joined Mathematica in 2007. She has a master’s degree in public administration from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.