Amy E. Lerman

Amy E. Lerman is the Michelle Schwartz Chair and professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also the founder and executive director of the Possibility Lab, where she leads a team of policy researchers and practitioners who partner with government and community to design, pilot, and scale data-driven innovations for the public good. Her research is focused on issues of equity, public opinion, and civic engagement, especially as they relate to public safety and social inequality in America. Lerman’s scholarship can be found in a wide variety of academic journals and has been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, and NPR. Lerman is the author of several award-winning books, including work on the American criminal justice system in The Modern Prison Paradox (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and Arresting Citizenship (University of Chicago Press, 2014). Her most recent book, Good Enough for Government Work (University of Chicago Press, 2019), examines how perceptions of government shape citizens’ attitudes toward privatization and public programs. In 2023 Lerman was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Her Andrew Carnegie Fellows project, “Exploring the Impacts of Deliberative Engagement on Polarization in America,” explores whether and how deliberative democracy can foster cross-sector and state/local collaboration to produce actionable recommendations that inform the state’s climate goals. Lerman and her team at the Possibility Lab are partnering with the California Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) and the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) to explore how government agencies can structure civic engagement processes in ways that counter harmful polarization in the mass public.