Becky Strauss - D.C. Policy Center

Becky is a quintessential Washingtonian. Born inside the beltway, she went to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and spent many years at two international think tanks, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). After working on a host of broad international economic and domestic topics—from demographics to education, taxes to pensions and infrastructure to competitiveness—she’s excited to work on local topics that are more close to home. She is co-author of the book How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and US Policy (2016). Her writing and infographics have appeared in the New York Times, TIME magazine, Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, Forbes and Quartz. She also teaches public policy to college students.

D.C. Policy Center contributors are independent writers, and we gladly encourage the expression of a variety of perspectives. The views of our contributors, published here or elsewhere, do not reflect the views of the D.C. Policy Center.

Written By Becky Strauss

Articles | Racial Equity | Workforce

Battling Racial Discrimination in the Workplace

On the surface, D.C.’s economy is thriving. But this is not the case for all residents. D.C. is among the most racially segregated cities in the country, which could be one reason why so much of the prosperity in the Northwest never seems to make it to the Southeast. Housing, education, and…

January 24, 2019 | Becky Strauss

Articles | Demographics | Housing

Making room for Millennial families

Will Millennials stay in the District when they start a family? D.C. policymakers have been fighting for decades to get young people to move downtown. They sure did come, and more of them than policymakers ever expected. But the long-term growth of D.C.’s population and tax base depends on them staying…

January 24, 2018 | Becky Strauss

Articles | Criminal Justice

D.C. is better at nabbing murderers than a generation ago

The District’s crime rates have come a long way from the “murder capital” days of the 1990s, when its per-capita murder rate was the highest in the nation. D.C.’s murder rate began plummeting in the late 1990s, as it did in cities across America, and is now one third what it was…

June 25, 2017 | Becky Strauss

Articles | Housing | Poverty and Income Inequality

D.C. leads in anti-poverty policies

D.C.’s story is frequently told through income inequality and poverty. But there is also a part that is seldom explored—that D.C.’s poor have access to stronger social support programs than in many other large American cities. Economic growth has certainly helped with D.C.’s policy regime, which has generally increased resources and programs available to its…

April 10, 2017 | Becky Strauss