San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center’s (PIC) economist & director of research is Karen Boyd, Ph.D. As a core member and leader of the research team, she is responsible for developing, executing, and sharing actionable, equity-focused research.
Karen does mixed methods research and specializes in synthesizing insights from qualitative data. Her work has appeared in many academic publications; she has been invited to numerous talks and panels; and she has presented several posters and workshops. She was a co-editor for JASIST Special Issue on “Artificial Intelligence and Work.”
Most recently, Karen served as an economist at the San Diego Workforce Partnership. While in this role, she collected and analyzed focus group surveys, census and other government data and compiled them into actionable research products. She also helped produce “Addressing San Diego’s Behavioral Workforce Shortage,” which highlighted the ongoing workforce needs in mental health and substance abuse treatment and has spurred state and local investment in San Diego’s economy.
Karen earned her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park with her dissertation, “Understanding and Intervening in Machine Learning Ethics: Supporting Ethical Sensitivity in Training Data Curation.” She received a Master of Business Administration from the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Diego State University.
