Irene Lew is the Senior Manager of Research at United Neighborhood Houses, where she leads UNH’s efforts to collect data and use evidence-based research to promote UNH’s policy priorities and elevate the importance of the settlement house model. Her research and policy reports have focused on a variety of policy areas important to settlement house members, including efforts to serve asylum seeking families, wage equity, food insecurity, early childhood education, and older adults. Irene also manages collaborations with external researchers who are interested in partnering with UNH and its members.

She joined UNH after five years as a Policy Analyst at the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), where she conducted economic, demographic and labor market research to help improve the upward mobility of low-income New Yorkers. Prior to CSS, Irene was a Research Analyst at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, where she conducted research on housing challenges and issues faced by low-income households. Irene received her Master’s degree in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from The New School.

Irene was born and raised in Queens, where she currently lives with her husband and three daughters. When she’s not crunching numbers, she is running, in the rock-climbing gym, or eating her way through all the delicious food in Queens.