Elisa Chen is a research analyst at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), where she is a member of the applied research team. Her research interests include: financial literacy, higher education law, minority-serving institutions, postsecondary access and success, and underserved students.

Prior to joining IHEP, Chen was a research assistant for the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania, where she conducted research and prepared reports on legal issues, such as Title IX obligations, affecting minority-serving institutions. Chen was also a 2013 recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Public Service Fellowship, which enabled her to provide legal aid to low-income, first-generation students of color and their families. During her service, she also organized and led community workshops designed to educate parents, counselors, and other advocates on the changing landscape of higher education law and its effect on students. She previously clerked for the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, where she evaluated university policies on marriage and parenthood, assessed individual civil rights complaints, and supported data collection and analysis for the nationwide Civil Rights Data Collection on public school access and equity.

Chen earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia, where her research focused on the intersection of education and civil rights law. She also holds a Master of Science in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from New York University.