Ajay Chaudry is a research scholar at New York University’s Institute for Human Development and Social Change and Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Services. His work in public policy research and analysis focuses on improving children’s well-being and development, early care and education, human services programs, and immigration. From 2012 to 2015, Chaudry was a political appointee in the Obama administration, serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy in the Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services. He also previously served as Deputy Commissioner for Early Childhood Programs at the NYC Administration for Children Services, Director of the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute and as a faculty member at the New School for Social Research School of Management and Urban Policy.
He is the author of Putting Children First: How low-wage working mothers manage child care, co-author of Cradle to Kindergarten: A new plan to combat inequality. He received his A.B. from Columbia University, and M.P.P. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.