Lorena Roque is the interim director of the education, labor & worker justice team at CLASP where her research focuses on job quality, worker organizing rights, and labor enforcement. Roque has expertise in federal tax issues, the racial wealth gap, and systems of inequality in the labor market. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Fast Company.

Before coming to CLASP, Lorena was a senior policy analyst with the Center for American Progress (CAP), where she focused on the intersection of economic policy and racial justice. Her work included papers on comprehensive policy reform aimed at improving the economic wellbeing and health of Latino Americans as well as on how the economic recovery is perpetuating systematic racism. Lorena was also head of negotiations for CAP Union. Prior to CAP, Lorena worked as a policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy and as a financial services committee fellow for U.S. House Representative David Scott, among other positions.

Roque holds a master’s in public policy with a focus on economic policy from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Southwestern University. She is currently pursuing a PhD part time at The George Washington University in public policy.