Rayna Young

Research Analyst

Rayna Young is the new Research Analyst for the Center for Policy Analysis and Research (CPAR) at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Inc (CBCF). Rayna will help identify opportunities for high-impact research projects, conduct research, and analyze data to help advance the CPAR research and policy agenda. She will be responsible for contributing to research design, implementation, and analysis.

Prior to joining the CBCF, Rayna has worked at the intersection of the public and private sectors addressing complex problems. She has worked on issue advocacy around reproductive health for communications agency Berlin Rosen, and has supported the nation’s largest Black-owned social impact firm in implementing meaningful DEI and corporate social responsibility initiatives at prominent businesses.

Rayna earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2023, and earned a master’s degree from the same university in 2024, as a member of the school’s second cohort of the Accelerated Master’s in Public Policy program. As a graduate student, Rayna earned a Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good, where she learned cross-sector, community-engaged practices that are applicable to working on multi-disciplinary teams. Rayna had a concentration in Social Policy and Inequality, and her capstone project, entitled Dress Codes, Pushout, and Self-Expression: An Analysis of New York City Public Schools, is being published as a part of a larger report by Girls for Gender Equity, and was used in a New York City Council hearing about equitable dress code policies.

Rayna grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, but was born in the Northern Virginia area; and is excited to settle back into the Washington, DC area.