Richard Sousa
Senior Associate Director and Research Fellow

Expertise: Labor economics, specializing in discrimination, labor market issues, and K–12 education

Richard Sousa is senior associate director and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has been at the Hoover Institution since 1990.

Sousa, an economist, specializes in discrimination, labor market issues, and K–12 education. In addition to his role as senior associate director, Sousa and Research Fellow Hanna Skandera recently published School Figures: A Look at the Details behind the Debate (2003). Using facts and figures, they provide a concise and understandable analysis of the state of K–12 education in the United States. His recent op-eds have appeared in newspapers including the Dallas Morning News, Dayton Daily News, and Providence Journal; his recent articles have appeared in School Reform News and the Hoover Digest. His earlier work includes "New Evidence on School Desegregation," "An Analysis of Geographic Differences in Employment and Unemployment among Male Teenagers," and "The Labor Market Experiences of Young Men."

As senior associate director, Sousa is responsible for organizing, administering, and implementing all activities and initiatives at the Hoover Institution. He also works with the director to develop institutional policies, strategy, and long range planning. He is also responsible for organizing high-level academic and policy conferences, as well as for developing the Institution's building expansion program.

From 1991 to 2002, Sousa was associate director for operations, supervising and coordinating the activities of eight managers and more than twenty-five professional and support staff in the areas of budget and finance, public affairs, communications and outreach, publications, human resources, computer services, and facilities and conferences. He was responsible for special projects, including the launch of major communications initiatives—the Hoover Digest: Research and Opinion on Public Policy, Education Next: A Journal of Opinion and Research, the Hoover Weekly Essays series, and Uncommon Knowledge™, a weekly half-hour television program broadcast by PBS. From 1990 to 1995, Sousa was the coordinator of the Diplomat Training Program.

Before coming to the Hoover Institution, Sousa was vice president and senior economist at Welch Associates and Unicon Research Corporation in Los Angeles, California. He also worked for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as coordinator of special research projects, as well as serving as special assistant to the vice chancellor for undergraduate programs and student relations.

Sousa was also an economist at the RAND Corporation and has taught economics and statistics at UCLA. He has testified in class action legal cases and served as an economic consultant to major firms throughout the country.

Sousa graduated from Boston College with a B.S. in economics (magna cum laude). He received an M.A. in economics from UCLA.