Vidhya Ananthakrishnan joined Vera in August 2008 as a senior program associate for the Center on Youth Justice. Before joining the center, she worked as a senior analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, DC, where she conducted evaluations of different federal workforce and transit programs. Previously she worked as a staff associate for the Neighborhood Family Services Coalition, a small youth services advocacy organization in New York City, where she directed a grassroots campaign to secure funding for the summer youth jobs program and analyzed state and city policy proposals to understand their impact on community service providers. She has also conducted research at the Finance Project, a DC-based nonprofit consulting firm that helps youth and family service organizations establish sustainable funding. Vidhya has a bachelor's degree in economics and international studies from Northwestern University and a master's degree in public policy from George Washington University, where she focused on social policy and public finance.