Emma García is a Principal Researcher at the Learning Policy Institute. She works with the Early Childhood Learning, Educator Quality, and Equitable Resources and Access teams. Her work focuses on describing student learning and development, teaching, and the contexts and systems in which they occur. Her research is designed to produce evidence that informs policymakers about current needs and the kinds of policies they can help advance to improve education processes and produce better outcomes for students and educators.

She has extensive research experience in the fields of economics of education, education policy, and quantitative methods. Among others, García has held research positions at the Economic Policy Institute, the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education, the Campaign for Educational Equity, the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, and the Community College Research Center, and she has consulted with various national and international organizations, including the National Institute for Early Education Research, MDRC, the World Bank, the OCDE, and the Inter-American Development Bank. García also serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. She has published academic and policy studies on a range of issues, including production of education, educational equity, teacher labor markets, international comparative education, and cost-benefit analysis of education interventions.

García received a PhD in Economics and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University; an MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from Columbia University; and a BA in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University.