Julia Gelatt is a research associate in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute, where her research focuses on immigration, child well-being, and early education. Her work uses mixed methods, including secondary data analysis, original survey development, administrative data analysis, and qualitative interviews.
Gelatt’s work on immigration includes a review of promising practices for connecting immigrant families to prekindergarten; analysis of the implications of the Affordable Care Act for immigrants’ health care access in California; a description of the limited English proficient population in Washington, DC; and research on the implications of parents’ and children’s immigration status for children’s health and well-being. Her work on child well-being includes a focus on instability in families’ access to child care subsidies and an examination of the contexts that shape parenting practices, such as nonstandard or irregular work schedules, mental health, immigration status, and family structure. Her work on early education includes an evaluation of the Head Start designation and renewal system, and a policy brief on New York City’s streamlined early education system, EarlyLearn NYC. Gelatt’s other ongoing research includes an evaluation of a supportive housing program for families involved in the child welfare system.
Before joining Urban, Gelatt worked on topics related to US immigration policy and immigrant integration at the Migration Policy Institute. She received her PhD in sociology and social policy from Princeton University.