Emily Jacobson is a Research Associate at the Possibility Lab at the University of California, where she leads research on housing and urban land use policy for the Lab’s Abundance Accelerator initiative. Her work focuses on identifying and addressing the barriers to increasing housing supply and affordability in California.

Specifically, Emily’s research examines how land use laws, local approval processes, public engagement, and environmental review can impede housing production and how they might be effectively reformed. Additionally, she partners with government, practitioners, and researchers to improve the quality and availability of data on housing and homelessness.

Prior to her current role, Emily was a research analyst at NORC at the University of Chicago and served as the inaugural Research Fellow at the California YIMBY Education Fund. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a Bachelor’s from Rice University.