Jayla Hart is a Pre-K–12 education policy intern at The Century Foundation, with an interest in advancing educational equity and neighborhood integration for marginalized students and their families. Prior to joining TCF, Jayla served as an education policy associate at the Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) where she focused on improving representation in early childhood education materials and bolstering childhood mental health equity. She also worked as a research assistant at the Social Cognitive and Behavior Lab (SCABL) studying differential perceptions of racial history and motivated meaning-making. Jayla is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s of arts in political psychology and a minor in global studies in education. She is currently an accelerated masters of public policy candidate at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. When not engaging with policy work, Jayla is a poet and spoken word artist.