Lizzy Ferrara is a policy analyst in the Research to Action Lab at the Urban Institute. She provides technical assistance and training, conducts program evaluations, translates policy into practice, coordinates events, and contributes to research and writing. Her work focuses on the structural drivers of health, including digital opportunity, local health programming, housing, economic development, and upward mobility. Committed to integrating critical frameworks, Ferrara is interested in the social and political determinants of health, Indigenous research, and community-led approaches. She coleads Urban’s Tribal Nations Working Group.

Previously, Ferrara was a local public health consultant at BME Strategies, where she coordinated public health coalitions across 16 local health departments. She helped develop shared services arrangements under the Massachusetts Public Health Excellence Initiative, was a unit leader for the Medical Reserve Corps, and supported local emergency preparedness planning, COVID-19 responses, hiring, and grant management. For her master’s practicum, Ferrara contributed to the COVID-19 State US Policies team, researching state-level policy responses with a focus on data reporting for American Indian and Alaska Native communities. She also was an administrative assistant at Boston University’s Office of Environmental Health, supporting faculty, staff, and graduate students.

Ferrara holds a bachelor’s degree in public health, with a minor in health and human values, from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree in public health, with a focus on health policy and law, from Boston University. She graduated with honors, completing a thesis on the role of federal policy in addressing sexual assault in higher education.