Jennie Brand

Jennie Brand is a professor in the UCLA Department of Sociology and an expert on the socioeconomic effects of college education, as well job loss — being fired or laid off — and she has studied job displacement, encompassing its long-term economic, psychological, physiological and intergenerational impacts and effects. Her research, available here, has shown that following layoffs, participation drops in community and social groups. Brand has studied people’s efforts to find new employment and the emotional and social impact of recessions. 

In her work related to the impact of attaining higher education, Brand studies the benefit of college education among traditionally underrepresented socio-economic groups, including the return on investment in future earnings, long-term community engagement and reduction of early pregnancies.

She is the author of “Overcoming the Odds: The Benefits of Completing College for Unlikely Graduates.”