Vanessa Brown Calder is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, where she focuses on social welfare, housing and urban policy. Previously, Calder was a graduate fellow in welfare studies at the Heritage Foundation and consulted for a nonpartisan state policy think tank. Much of her experience is in environmental consulting for the energy industry, urban planning for local municipalities and international development for a humanitarian organization.
Calder holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor's degree in urban planning from the University of Utah.