Uniting
Research and Policy

Laura Benrey, MPP'20, is a data analyst for the City of Chicago.  Previously she worked as a peace and recovery consultant with Innovations for Poverty Action, where she focused on leveraging best practices and gaps in the literature of forced migration to inform the creation of a funding grant from the UK’s Department of International Development.

While at Harris Public Policy, Benrey co-edited a white paper for the Inter-Policy School Summit to be published by the Aspen Institute and worked as a teaching assistant for the course "International Environmental Policy." In summer 2019 she served as a Fellow with the Cook County Government's Economic Development Bureau and interned with Innovations for Poverty Action.

Prior to her time at the University of Chicago, Benrey worked as a legal case worker with Kentucky Refugee Ministries, where she helped refugees and asylum-seekers navigate the federal government’s evolving policy regarding refugee family reunification. She also completed an internship with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, where she researched a State Department-funded Trafficking in Persons Report. 

Benrey holds an undergraduate degree in international affairs from the University of Cincinnati.