Desiree Carver-Thomas is a Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Learning Policy Institute and a member of LPI’s Educator Quality team. Her work focuses on how educator quality, teacher diversity, and leadership development can promote equitable opportunities for teaching and learning. She has authored several LPI reports, including Diversifying the Teaching Profession: How to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color. She also leads LPI’s Racial Equity Leadership Network team.

Before joining LPI, Carver-Thomas taught in New York City public elementary schools, where she had experience in bilingual education, special education, and as a mathematics lead. As a graduate student fellow with the Center for Cities and Schools at UC Berkeley, she worked with the City of Richmond on implementing a full-service community schools initiative. She conducted similar work with the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Carver-Thomas holds an M.P.P. from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, an M.S. in Teaching from Fordham University, and a B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Anthropology from Columbia University.