ABOUT DR. JESSICA BARRON

Jessica M. Barron, Ph.D. is an author, demographer, impact storyteller, and advisor, helping others break down complex social issues to imagine more expansive solutions. After publishing receiving a nomination for Distinguished Book of the Year for her first book, The Urban Church Imagined with NYU Press, Dr. Barron went on to build what is now over a decade-long track record in social impact research and practice. Dr. Barron has evaluated and advised over 50 social impact and philanthropic institutions to maximize their footprint in the shifting political and demographic landscape. She continues to work as a thought partner and strategist for “big ideas” leaders on the margins, designing pathways to execute and sustain their goals. Dr. Barron is a data-driven storyteller and mixed-methodologist whose work is published and awarded across the academic and philanthropic sectors.

Prior to her career in the social impact sector, Dr. Barron served as a researcher in the Texas Census Research and Data Center before transitioning to a research scientist and instructor in the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University. Her work received funding from the National Science Foundation, The Texas Census Research and Data Center, Loyola University of Chicago’s McNamara Center for Religious Studies, and the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute at Texas A&M University. The majority of her academic career was spent exploring and designing new measurement tools to better understand the effects of population change on patterns and practices of stratification and inclusion in U.S. residential patterns, health outcomes, and political and religious practices.

Currently, Dr. Barron is the co-principal of an Impact Storytelling Studio ™. As an architect of impact stories, she marries the rigor of evaluative tools with narrative functions to help to tell your story and tell it better.

Dr. Barron is a native of Los Angeles, CA and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Texas A&M University.

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