Senior Research Associate
mavilaac@syr.eduDr. Montserrat Avila Acosta is a Senior Research Associate at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI). In this role, she leads the Benefits Counseling project under the Disability Employment Policy Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. She also contributes to research projects examining the use of AI in the hiring of people with disabilities and poverty among people with disabilities.
Dr. Avila Acosta has expertise in quantitative methods. In addition to disability policy, Montserrat’s research spans K12 education and school safety. Prior to joining BBI, she worked at the Coalition for Applied Modeling for Prevention (CAMP) and at the World Bank, where she conducted research on health and poverty, among other topics.
Montserrat received a Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy from the University at Albany, SUNY, and an M.A. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University.