Our Mission

The Equity Research Institute (ERI) uses data and analysis to contribute to a more powerful, well-resourced, intersectional, and intersectoral movement for racial, economic, and environmental justice.

Who we are

The USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute (ERI) produces data-driven analysis and rigorous research, leads convenings, engages strategic collaborations, and models effective, sustainable, racially-just research center.

ERI believes that long-term change is made when historically marginalized communities are empowered, can put forth proposals, and hold decision-makers accountable. And, when communities come together across race, space, and place, movements for change build and have an impact on greater scales of governance. One of the many elements required to make this sort of change is research – the niche occupied by ERI.

Our focus areas

“Perhaps more than any other research institute, ERI has published reports that have moved the needle on so many issues nationally, in California, and locally.

The work is so cutting edge, in part because ERI is on the ground with social movement organizations, with community leaders, with civic leaders who are really trying to address social justice issues for populations that have been excluded, marginalized for generations.“

Dr. Veronica Terriquez, Director

UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

“I’ve seen the impact of ERI’s work in our publications in real time, particularly how we’ve been able to disaggregate data across many racial and ethnic groups. This has empowered communities in smaller counties and rural areas to utilize our data in telling narratives that uplift and create the change they seek.

It’s a pleasure to be part of something making a real-time impact, focusing on promoting racial equity and centering those impacted daily by issues often underfunded or ignored.”

Khia Duncan

ERI Data Analyst

“The work of ERI has made PolicyLink a more data-informed and results-driven organization.

ERI has lifted up the voice, wisdom, and experience of more than 100 million people who are struggling to make ends meet in this country.”

Michael McAfee

PolicyLink, President & CEO

“To me, ERI has demonstrated a really powerful formula for social change.

When you take data, research, and ideas from higher ed, combine it with community power and community leadership—boom

—change happens.”

Cathy Cha

Haas Jr. Fund, President & CEO

Check out the full

#ERI15years

playlist on YouTube

Hear from 20+ partners, staff,

and community allies on ERI’s impact

over the years and what they

hope for ERI in the years ahead!

“ERI is the beacon for us to follow throughout the year... a big percentage of our day-to-day operation, is policy development, creation, and implementation, so that the county figures out how to do better for immigrants.

...All the work [ERI does] is incredibly helpful and a way to legitimize the work we do because we have empirical legitimate, academic data that gives us a path forward to follow.“

Rigo Reyes, Executive Director

LA Office of Immigrant Affairs

“As a sociologist and a junior scholar, ERI has had countless effects on the way that

I have thought about the purpose of the work that we do as scholars of reaching beyond the Ivory Tower of really conducting community-engaged research..

I would love for researchers across institutions... to be able to adapt the model that ERI has built so effectively— of drawing young scholars into the work of working with communities that they study, a better understanding the power dynamics that shape them, and ultimately forging stronger relationships that can actually fuel meaningful social change.”

Dr. Hajar Yazdiha

ERI Affiliated Faculty, USC Sociology

Looking Around the Corner: 3-part series

In this webinar series, ERI and community leaders discussed the power-building ecosystem in California: infrastructure, strategies, and capacities for economic justice, multiracial democratic power, and narrative change.

Solidarity and Spirituality: Soul, Scale, and Strategy in a Time of Crisis

Authors Victor Narro, Valarie Kaur, Chris Benner, and Manuel Pastor discussed the themes and intersections of their works, The Activist Spirit, Revolutionary Love Project, and Solidarity Economics.

Dr. Leah Gose

Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Ezinne Nwanko

National Equity Atlas

Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Bita Minaravesh

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Dr. Sean Angst

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

“ERI is a place that, I think, has really elevated a lot of young analysts of color, a lot of young intellectuals and academics of color, to really provide a pipeline for community scholars.

I think, also, its role has been to create space in academia for folks to have conversations about the issues that really affect communities, and to take those issues really seriously, and to elevate the voices of community members in that work.”

Edward Muna

ERI Project Manager

“For PICO California, I would say ERI has been a tremendous source of research, data, and strategic thought partnership for many years.

ERI has shaped how the community leaders, and clergy and tribal elders and organizers of PICO and many of our partner organizations understand power.”

Joseph Tomás McKellar

PICO California, Executive Director

“I've worked at different foundations and every dollar I was able to invest from those foundations into the work of the ERI has been money so well spent—excellent return on investment in the march towards economic and environmental justice.

They're best-in-class when it comes to participatory research, and have shown that when you are collaborating and engaging with policy, and with those doing the work on the ground, what you actually get is higher quality research.”

Danielle Deane Ryan

Environmental Justice and Philanthropy Leader