Francisca García-Cobián Richter is a Research Associate Professor at CWRU’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and Associate Director of the Center on Poverty and Community Development. She studied statistics in Peru, then earned her master’s in statistics and Ph.D. in agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University.
Her work looks at how social policies and systems affect the wellbeing of marginalized groups. She helped design the first county-level Pay for Success evaluation on homelessness and child welfare, and has used administrative linked data to study the effects of childhood lead poisoning, housing instability, and child welfare interventions. She integrates experiential knowledge in this analysis to uncover hidden biases in data and improve policy insights. Her findings have supported lead-safe housing efforts and Right to Counsel legislation in Cleveland.
With a PIT-UN grant, she co-created FAIR2, a framework that brings community voices into data analysis and addresses discrimination bias. She also co-leads a certificate in Data Sciences for Social Impact with the School of Engineering, training students to use data responsibly for social justice. In addition, she directs Math Corps Super Saturdays at CWRU, where young people and college students build math skills and confidence in a positive, supportive space.
