Menna Mburi is a doctoral student in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As the daughter of Tanzanian immigrants, she seeks to uplift and center the histories, perspectives, and experiences of ethnically, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse Black immigrant families in child and family policy and social policy research. Her research broadly interrogates structural and social drivers of inequities among Black immigrants. She is particularly interested in examining how eligibility restrictions in the U.S. social safety net create access barriers and exacerbate racial and ethnic disparities in health, economic security, and well-being among low-income Black immigrant families. 

Prior to pursuing her PhD, she was a data analyst at Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute where she supported interdisciplinary projects focused on education, social change, and child development. Menna holds an Ed.M. in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In graduate school, she is continuing her commitment to promoting racial equity in early childhood as a research assistant with the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.