Jamila Michener, PhD, is an associate professor of Government at Cornell University. She is co-director of the Cornell Center for Health Equity, co-director of the Politics of Race, Immigration, Class and Ethnicity (PRICE) initiative, and board chair of the Cornell Prison Education Program. 

Professor Michener studies poverty, racial inequality, and public policy and is author of Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics (Cambridge University Press). Her research has been supported by the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Professor Michener’s public writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vox, Salon and numerous other outlets. As an engaged scholar, Professor Michener is co-leader of the Finger Lakes chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network, an organization focused on bringing academic research to policymakers, civil associations, and the media. She engages extensively with state, local, and national policymakers and organizations, advising on issues related to race, poverty, and public policy. 

Prior to working at Cornell, Michener was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar at the University of Michigan. She received her Master of Arts and Doctorate from the University of Chicago and her Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University.