Dianna Ruberto

Dianna Ruberto is a 2023–2025 National Poverty Fellow in residence at the Office for the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). She earned her PhD in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. Ruberto conducts critical community-engaged research about the experiences and agency of Black low-income populations in urban policy processes. Her research interests include racial politics, citizen participation, urban development, and arts and cultural policy. Her dissertation, “’We are the ones that drive the culture’: Black Agency in Market-Driven Creative Placemaking Practices,” used interpretive and participatory research approaches to investigate several dimensions of Black stakeholder experiences and agency in Wilmington, Delaware’s creative district. She was an APPAM Equity and Inclusion Fellow (2021–2022), Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) Fellow for Imagining America (2018–2019) and was a Graduate Community Engagement Scholar at the University of Delaware. Ruberto is mentored by IRP Affiliate Jamila Michener and Gabrielle Newell, Senior Equity Advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Twitter: @diannanotdiana