About

Kiara M. Nerenberg is a researcher, statistician, and sociologist of education. Her research uses quantitative, qualitative, and geospatial methods to explore how public policy can expand and support more equitable educational opportunities for students and their families.

A graduate of New York City public schools, Kiara has been interested in cities as landscapes of educational inequality since childhood. Before starting graduate school, she spent over two years as a research assistant at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, where she contributed to research on school closures, charter school policy, and teacher certification. As a doctoral student, Kiara worked with the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) to examine causes and consequences of student mobility, both within and across districts in the Baltimore region. She is also an alumni affiliate of the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab (PIRL) at Johns Hopkins, where she has contributed to research on poverty, housing, education, and social policy. Her research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including American Sociological Review, American Educational Research Journal, Social Science Research, and Urban Education.

In March 2025, Kiara joined the Maryland State Department of Education as the Data Manager for the Division of College and Career Pathways. Before joining MSDE, Kiara served as a statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education. Her responsibilities at NCES included producing data and conducting research for the Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates program (EDGE).

Kiara resides in Baltimore City and holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University, as well as a bachelor’s (with honors) in sociology from the University of Chicago.