As the Director of Research at the CareWorks Project, Dr. Lina Stepick leads applied research that helps clients understand how caregiving systems work—and where they break down. They work collaboratively with clients to design and translate rigorous analysis into clear insights that inform strategy, policy, and action across the caregiving economy. 

Lina is a mixed-methods labor sociologist with a background in research justice and participatory research approaches. They have conducted and published applied research in partnership with worker groups, nonprofit organizations, state agencies, and academic scholars on job quality, worker organizing, work hours and scheduling, community development, and racial equity. Their research on the care economy more specifically has included examinations of state policy impacts, contract staffing, multiple jobholding amongst direct care workers, matching service registries, care quality in both direct care and early care and education, direct care worker organizing, and more.

Recognized with various awards for their research rigor and findings, over the past two decades Lina has also secured funding through dozens of research grants and contracts from public and private funders. Prior to joining the CareWorks Project, Lina worked as Director of Research with PHI, led care economy research as a Senior Researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, was on faculty with the University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center (LERC), and worked with the UCLA Labor Center, the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute, and the East LA Community Corporation. Lina received their PhD and MA in Sociology from UCLA as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow and their BA in Sociology, Anthropology, and Gender Studies from Dartmouth College.