Alena Stern is an associate director of data science at the Urban Institute studying policy solutions to advance equity and inclusion in cities. Before joining Urban, she worked as a senior program manager with AidData, an Open Cities fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, and a graduate research assistant at the Center for Data Science and Public Policy, where she used machine learning, natural language processing, statistical analysis, and geospatial data to inform the design of government policies and international development programs.

Alena holds a BA in economics and international relations from the College of William and Mary and an MS in computational analysis and public policy from the University of Chicago.