The Network conducts original research and collects data on women and communities of color. Research generated at the Network is used to create informed public policies at local, state and national levels.
Our work includes:
Established in 2000 with core support from Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields and the Ford Foundation, the Women of Color Policy Network is the only research and policy institute in the country focused on women of color housed at a top ranked public policy school.
The impetus for the creation of the Network came out of a conference convened by the Roundtable of Institutions of People of Color held at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service entitled Women of Color: The Forgotten Members of the New Economy.
Participants also stressed the need for an analytic and methodological framework that would take into consideration the impact of race, class, gender, ethnicity and other markers of difference on policy analysis and formation. The late Dr. Walter Stafford, professor of Urban Planning and Policy, NYU Wagner served as the Institute's Principal Investigator from its inception until September 2008.
In 2008, the Network became an affiliate of the Research Center for Leadership In Action (RCLA), a permanent research center at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. RCLA crafts and runs customized, experiential leadership programs that both expand individuals' skills and strengthen the organizations in which they work. They also develop structured convenings where leaders explore the complexity of the challenges they face and together advance their efforts to make change possible. As an academic center, RCLA conducts rigorous social science research, employing a variety of innovative and participatory methodologies to the issues of contemporary leadership.