The USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute (ERI) seeks to use data and analysis to contribute to a more powerful, well-resourced, intersectional, and intersectoral movement for equity. ERI’s accurate, community-centered data and analysis are the basis of new narratives for equity. Our forward-looking, actionable research supports the ecosystem of change by identifying new opportunities for investments, solidarity, and power building. ERI’s key activities include: Producing data-driven analysis and rigorous research to inform movements and policy; Leading convenings and communications that deepen and broaden our reach; Engaging in strategic collaborations that leverage our strengths for broader impact. One of the many elements required to make this sort of change is research – the niche occupied by ERI. As a university-based research organization with reach to affected communities through community-based organizations, funders, business leaders, and others, ERI has contributed reliable data in the areas of environmental justice, immigrant integration, regional equity, and movement building that is academically rigorous as well as relevant to policy debates. ERI is a research unit housed within the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California. ERI is the entity resulting from the combination of two institutes: the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII), which were founded at USC in 2008. Led by our Executive Director Professor Manuel Pastor, ERI has full-time staff, graduate research assistants and undergraduate student workers, an advisory council of community partners, and a wide network of affiliated faculty members.
