A. Brooks Bowden is an assistant professor in the Education Policy Division at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also serves as the Director of the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education.

Prof. Bowden is interested in using rigorous methods to evaluate the effectiveness and costs of programs and policies that are designed to mitigate the effects of poverty on the value of schooling. In particular, this relates to comprehensive student support, early education and child policy, the transition from high school to postsecondary and the labor market, and special education or health policy for children with autism.

Prof. Bowden is a co-author of the primary text on cost-effectiveness, Economic Evaluation in Education: Cost-Effectiveness and Benefit-Cost Analysis, 3rd Edition. She serves as associate editor at the American Journal of Evaluation and is a board member of the AERA journal Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis.