Swati Dontamsetti is a Robert Curvin Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University–Newark. She received her doctorate in Education Theory, Organization, and Policy from the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. Her research examines how governance structures, district boundaries, and policy implementation systems shape racial and socioeconomic inequality in public schools.
Her dissertation integrated large-scale administrative data analysis with spatial counterfactual simulation and difference-in-differences methods to evaluate district consolidation as a desegregation strategy in New Jersey. Her background as a New Jersey public school teacher grounds her research in the lived realities of students and teachers in urban schools and informs her approach to applied research as a tool for structural equity.
She has a peer-reviewed entry in Encyclopedia titled “Bilingual Education in the U.S.” She is also a co-author of The Latinx Experience in NJ Schools report that was featured in Chalkbeat. While a doctoral candidate, she was a Policy and Research Intern at the Learning Policy Institute, where she supported multi-state policy projects on teacher residency implementation and sustainability. She was also a 2025 Just Education Policy Institute Developing Scholar.
Swati grew up attending public schools in central New Jersey and is a proud triple alumna of Rutgers. She holds a B.A. in English, an Ed.M. in English-Language Arts Education, and a Ph.D. in Education, all from Rutgers University–New Brunswick.