Katie Buitrago
About
Katie Buitrago is the Senior Director of Research and Analytics at Heartland Alliance’s Social IMPACT Research Center. She believes that rigorous and actionable research can equip the human services sector and policymakers with the evidence they need to help people achieve their human rights and meet their human needs.
Katie’s projects include a study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black and Latino Illinoisans’ health and economic outcomes. Katie researches and co-authors Heartland Alliance’s annual signature report (formerly known as the annual Report on Illinois Poverty), including a study of the scale of people with criminal records in Illinois and the impact of laws restricting civil liberties for people with records; a report on gender inequity and poverty; and a report on the cycle of poverty, violence, and trauma. Past projects include an evaluation of a major initiative to develop and implement an integrated data system for Chicago region workforce providers and research about how to expand access to asset-building products for low-income people and people of color, such as children’s savings accounts.
Before joining IMPACT, Katie conducted communications, legislative and regulatory advocacy, and research at Woodstock Institute to advance economic security for low-wealth people and people of color. She authored a report analyzing whether students at for-profit colleges were more likely to take out student loans than students at public and nonprofit colleges and used the findings to inform advocacy to reform the student debt system.
Katie has been invited to speak on research and policy issues with dozens of audiences, including the Illinois Commission on the Elimination of Poverty, Forefront, the Chicago Foundation for Women, Salesforce, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Senator Dick Durbin, and former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. She has appeared in media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Chicago Tribune, WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, ABC-7, and Chicago Public Radio.
Katie received her Master of Public Policy from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. She enjoys traveling (from New Orleans to New Zealand and beyond), powerlifting, hiking through natural and urban environments, reading voraciously, playing with her dog, and cooking.