Assist. Prof. Leyla Karimli

Leyla earned her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University’s School of Social Work. She received her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration and NYU’s McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research. She is an Assistant Professor at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, Social Welfare Department. Dr. Karimli uses multilevel experimental and quasi-experimental research designs to examine the links between multi-dimensional poverty, multilevel social exclusion, and individual-level psychosocial outcomes to inform poverty alleviation programs and policies in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia. Her interdisciplinary research aims at reconceptualizing poverty and changing the current poverty reduction discourse by arguing that that poverty reduction programs must tackle larger ecosystems, including social exclusion and systemic injustices, instead of predominantly targeting economic wellbeing.