Lauren Melodia is the deputy director of economic and fiscal policies at The Center for New York City Affairs at The New School. As the former deputy director of Macroeconomic Analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, Lauren supported the Roosevelt Institute’s work to ensure full employment and an economy that truly works for everybody. Lauren provided research and data analysis on fiscal and monetary policy, unemployment, and growth to support the think tank’s portfolio of work.
Prior to joining Roosevelt Institute, Lauren worked at the crossroads of economic justice and criminal justice reform. She organized a successful campaign to end New York’s exploitative prison telephone contract, which had grossly overcharged families for collect calls from loved ones in prison. She built a statewide coalition to end rural New York’s economic dependence on the prison industry, which had set back the criminal justice agenda for over 40 years. Lauren then worked in regional economic development, advocating and building consensus for infrastructure projects to create and maintain jobs in rural areas. Melodia holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Economics from CUNY John Jay College.