Silva Mathema is the director for Immigration Policy at American Progress. Her research focuses on the effects of U.S. immigration policies on the daily lives of immigrants. Previously, she worked as a research associate for the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, where she studied the intersections between race and ethnicity issues and policies regarding affordable housing and education.
Mathema earned her Ph.D. in public policy from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she specialized in immigration policy, and her B.A. in economics from Salem College. She is originally from Kathmandu, Nepal.