Sheida Isabel Elmi (she/her/ella) is an Associate Director at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (Aspen FSP), where she helps lead, drive strategy, and direct staffing for the Insights and Evidence team. Sheida manages research on topics such as climate stressors and disasters, wealth building, guaranteed income, liquid savings, and public and workplace benefits with cross-sector experts, including the Consumer Insights Collaborative. When she joined Aspen FSP, she led efforts to elevate people’s lived experiences to inform, shape, or otherwise influence policy, product, and programmatic solutions to improve family financial well-being. Previously, Sheida was an Associate Manager with The Pew Charitable Trusts. There, she led quantitative analyses, in-depth interviews, and focus groups to explore how families fare across different measures of financial well-being. Before that, she was a Research Analyst at MEF Associates, where she helped evaluate federal programs aimed at promoting economic security through higher education, matched-savings accounts, and employment and training programs.
Sheida holds a Master of Public Policy degree from UC Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies from Northwestern University. She serves on the Board of Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) and is a member of the Guaranteed Income Community of Practice.
