Wilhelmina Leigh has done work throughout her career in the areas of health policy, housing policy, income security/asset building, and labor market issues. At the Joint Center, she has specialized in health policy research, and has conducted analyses related to access to health care, women's health, men's health, and adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Previously a principal analyst at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Dr. Leigh also worked for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. Department of Labor), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Urban Institute, and the National Urban League Research Department.

Dr. Leigh taught at Harvard University, Howard University, the University of Virginia, and Georgetown University, and has been an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 1996. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins University and her A.B., also in economics, from Cornell University.

Media Contact: 202-789-6366
Email: media@jointcenter.org

Speaking Topics

Adolescent Reproductive Health
Women's Health

Medicare Part D

Social Security and Wealth

Selected Published Works

• Retirement Prospects and Perils: Public Opinion on Social Security and Wealth, by Race, 1997-2005, with Danielle Huff (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2007);
• “Wealth Measurement: Issues for People of Color in the United States,” in Wealth Accumulation and Communities of Color in the United States: Current Issues, eds. Jessica Gordon Nembhard and Ngina Chiteji (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2006);
• Women of Color Health Data Book, 3rd edition (NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, 2006);
• The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young Men of Color: Analyzing and Interpreting the Data, with Danielle Huff (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2006);
• Health Care and the Medicaid Program: Knowledge and Perceptions of Black Elected Officials, with Kelley D. Coleman (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2005);
• Factors Affecting the Health of Men of Color in the United States (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2004);
• Meeting the Workforce Development Needs of Community-Based Health Facilities: A Toolkit, with Kelley D. Coleman and Julia L. Andrews (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, for Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2004);
• “Does Place Matter? Births to African American and Latina Adolescents,” Review of Black Political Economy (Summer 2004);
• The Reproductive Health of African American Adolescents: What We Know and What We Don't Know, with Julia L. Andrews (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2002);
• “HIV/AIDS Prevention Education for African-American Youth: Issues, Recommendations, and Lessons Learned,” in Mobilizing to Fight HIV/AIDS in the African-American Community, supplement to Minority Health Today (April 2001);
• HIV/AIDS Prevention Education for African American Youth: Approaches, Issues, and Recommendations (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2000).