Katherine Sanchez joined the UCLA Labor Center in January 2022 as a Research Analyst. In this role, she supports the POWER in Workforce Development team’s research and evaluation projects to address systemic issues that limit economic outcomes for the most underserved communities in California. Katherine is particularly interested in the ways in which labor policy, immigration policy, and politics impact Latinos’ and other communities of color’s lived experiences in the U.S. As a graduate student at UCLA Luskin, she collaborated with the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center to analyze the effectiveness of California’s Car Wash Worker Law (AB 1688) and provide policy alternatives to optimize the existing law’s enforcement capacity and deter wage theft violations in the industry. Prior to joining the UCLA Labor Center, Katherine worked as a Digital Innovation Fellow for the City of Long Beach. In that role, she managed the development, implementation, and evaluation of Smart City Initiative programs and coordinated city-wide marketing campaigns for new digital equity projects. She holds a Master of Public Policy from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Spanish from UC Santa Barbara. In her spare time, Katherine enjoys gardening, traveling, and watching true crime shows.