Jamila Michener is a professor of Government and Public Policy at Cornell University. She is the inaugural director of the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures and senior associate dean of Public Engagement at the Brooks School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality, and public policy in the United States. Her 2020 book, Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics, examines how Medicaid affects democratic citizenship. Unpacking how federalism transforms Medicaid beneficiaries’ interpretations of government and structures their participation in politics, Fragmented Democracy assesses U.S. political life from the vantage points of those who live in or near poverty — disproportionately Black or Latino — and are reliant on government for vital resources.

Michener’s research has been supported by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. She received her doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Chicago and her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. Prior to working at Cornell, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar at the University of Michigan.