Desiree Carver-Thomas is a Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Learning Policy Institute and co-leads 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 also leads LPI’s Racial Equity Leadership Network team.

Carver-Thomas has experience in various K–12 education roles. She began her career teaching in New York City public elementary schools, where she taught in bilingual education and special education classrooms and served 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 and West Contra Costa Unified School District on implementing a full-service community schools initiative.

Carver-Thomas holds an MPP from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, an MS in Teaching from Fordham University, and a BA in Comparative Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Anthropology from Columbia University.