Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Karishma Furtado

Senior Research Associate | Urban Institute
Pronouns: she/her

Karishma Furtado is a Senior Research Associate and, previously, an Equity Scholar at the Urban Institute where she is affiliated with the Office of Race and Equity Research, the Education Data and Policy Center, and the Health Policy Center. Her research seeks to advance health equity, education equity, and racial equity through systems change. At Urban, she leads work related to measuring and modeling structural racism and equity and developing tools for equitable policy design (e.g., the Equity Scoring Initiative) as well as designing programs that center equity as a process and outcome (e.g., the Student Upward Mobility Initiative). Prior to this role, Karishma was a founding staff member of Forward Through Ferguson (FTF), a St. Louis-based non-profit focused on systems change to achieve racial equity. She established and led FTF’s Data and Research team. Before that she was a staff member of the Ferguson Commission and a co-author of the Ferguson Commission report. In addition to bachelor’s degrees in biology and public policy from the University of Chicago, Karishma has completed master’s and doctorate degrees in public health with a specialization in biostatistics and epidemiology from Washington University in St. Louis. She is passionate about using human-centered data, research, and strategy to catalyze and measure impact, facilitate accountability, deepen understanding, and imagine what’s possible on the path to racial equity.


Presentations from Facing Race 2024

There’s No Upward Mobility Without Racial Equity: Tools and Processes for Making Structural Progress

Upward mobility and collective prosperity cannot be achieved without racial equity. Structural inequities have excluded people from thriving in ways that improve their lives and opportunities for the next generations. A key starting point to addressing this is to strengthen the ability of local leaders to diagnose structural challenges and identify structural solutions. In this workshop, attendees will learn about the Upward Mobility Framework and the Equity Scoring Initiative as tools for facilitating measurable accountability to structurally oriented equity and mobility commitments. Presenters will demonstrate the connections between economic and social success and racial equity, share examples of how to operationalize these frameworks, and leave attendees with guidance for using them in their spheres of practice.

Speakers: Kimberly Burrowes, Karishma Furtado, Bill Pitkin