Executive Director, UC Possibility Lab and Professor of Political Science & Public Policy at UC Berkeley

Amy E. Lerman writes widely on issues related to public policy, public opinion, and political behavior, especially as they relate to civic life and social inequality in America. She is the author of several award-winning books, including The Modern Prison Paradox and Arresting Citizenship. Her most recent book, Good Enough for Government Work, examines how perceptions of government shape citizens’ attitudes toward privatization. Professor Lerman’s scholarship can also be found in a wide variety of academic journals and has been featured in numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, CNN and NPR. In addition to her academic work, Lerman has served as a speechwriter and communications consultant for national nonprofits and members of the United States Congress, a community organizer in Latin America and Southeast Asia, and a faculty member of the Prison University Project (now Mount Tamalpais College) at San Quentin State Prison. She has also served as an Advisory Board member to the United States Federal District Count on Plata v. Brown, and as a Senior Strategist for Data-Driven Innovation to the California Government Operations Agency. She has been awarded a Carnegie Fellowship for her work on political polarization, a W.E.B Du Bois Fellowship for her research on racial disparities, and in 2023 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Lerman is the Founder and Director of the Possibility Lab at UC Berkeley, where she partners with state and local government to design, pilot, and scale new models of civic participation for public-sector problem solving. The Possibility Lab team brings together researchers and practitioners who are bridging the gap between government and community to drive policy impact and improve people’s lives. Through on-going partnerships with changemakers both inside and outside government, they tackle big questions that cut across traditional research/practitioner boundaries. All projects are co-designed and carried out with community and government partners in order to ensure that innovations are feasible in the short term, scalable in the future, and make meaningful progress towards systemic change.