05/02/2026
APRIL 2026 SPOTLIGHT
Brittney Wilcher
Spelman Beginnings
Did you attend high school in Los Angeles or elsewhere in California? If so, which school? Yes, Claremont High School
What is your Spelman class year?
2009
If you lived on campus your first year, which residence hall did you call home? Manley
What was your major at Spelman? Economics (Minor: Math)
The Spelman Experience
How do you believe Spelman contributed to and prepared you for your life and work today?
Spelman gave me something no curriculum can fully capture: the unshakeable belief that my intellect, my voice, and my presence belong in every room I walk into. I arrived as a young Black woman from Southern California with big ambitions, and Spelman made sure I grew into every single one of them.
But beyond academic preparation, Spelman gave me a moral framework for my work. It taught me that excellence and purpose are not mutually exclusive, and that the most powerful thing I could do with my gifts was to direct them toward something larger than myself. That lesson shows up in everything I do today, from my research to the classroom to the community.
Spelman also opened my eyes to what was possible through research. As part of the Mathematical Association of America's National Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NREUP) program through Spelman's Department of Mathematics, I worked on a climate modeling project and presented findings to the local EPA. I remember standing there thinking: this is it. This is how research moves the needle on real decisions. That moment planted a seed that has grown into my entire career.
Have you returned to campus since graduation (for Reunion, Homecoming, or another event)? If so, what does it mean to you to reflect on your Spelman experience when you return?
Yes! I have had the pleasure of returning for both Reunion and Homecoming. Every time I return, I feel the weight of what that place gave me. There is something profound about walking those grounds as the woman I have become, with a PhD, a research portfolio, and work that has reached the floor of Congress, and remembering the girl who was just figuring out who she was. It is humbling and energizing all at once.
Looking back, what advice would you give your first-year (freshwoman) self?
Trust the timeline, but don't sleepwalk through it. Every seminar, every late night, every conversation with a professor who believed in you, those are deposits. You won't always know what you're building, but you're always building.
And don't be afraid to take up space. Spelman is training you for rooms that haven't been built yet. Apply for the research program. Say yes to the study abroad. Take the economics class even if it scares you. Walk in like you belong there, because you do.
Purpose & Path
Tell us about what you are doing today - personally and/or professionally.
Today I am doing work I genuinely believe in, across several fronts at once.
I am a Senior Consultant at Resolution Economics, a litigation consulting firm in Los Angeles, where I specialize in complex economic analysis for labor and employment cases, including pay equity, discrimination, and wage disputes. I also run my own independent consulting firm - Weathers Wilcher - through which I provide rigorous, evidence-based economic research and analysis to clients who need to translate data into impact.
I hold a Senior Fellow appointment with the Gender Equity Policy Institute, where my research sits at the intersection of labor markets and gender equity. I am also a Stanford Visiting Scholar, and I have an upcoming adjunct appointment at Cal State Long Beach beginning Fall 2026.
And then there is StarterKit™, an app I am currently developing and fundraising to launch. Rooted in labor economics and human capital development, StarterKit™ connects opportunity youth in LA County to the resources they need, whether housing, financial tools, workforce training, or education -- meeting people where they are with personalized pathways to stability. We are actively working with End Child Poverty California and pursuing partnerships with county offices and community partners to bring it to life.
Personally, I am elated to return home with my husband, a Morehouse alum, and our dog Freddi.
How has your Spelman education shaped or influenced the path you’re on now?
Spelman gave me the intellectual foundation with a moral compass. My dissertation examined gender disparities in labor and health markets, and components of that work were later cited in the Economic Report of the President and in congressional testimony. That trajectory doesn't happen without the rigor and standards Spelman demanded of me.
But more than technical training, Spelman gave me a reason to care about the questions I ask. I don't study gender disparities in labor and health markets simply because they're intellectually interesting. I study them because the outcomes have real consequences for real people, and Black women are disproportionately affected. Spelman made that personal for me. It made urgency part of my methodology.
What inspired you to change the world in the way that you do through your work, passion, or purpose?
It goes back to that moment at Spelman, standing in front of EPA officials presenting a climate model my team had built, and feeling the click of: this is what research can do. It can shift decisions. It can move policy. It can change what gets funded, what gets measured, what gets fixed.
That feeling has never left me. I have carried it through federal regulatory work protecting over 22 million workers, through healthcare research, through pay equity cases, and now into StarterKit™. Each stop along the way has reinforced the same truth: data is only as powerful as its ability to reach people who need it.
What drives me is the conviction that evidence should work for people, not just sit in a journal or a courtroom filing.
What advice would you give fellow Spelman sisters on discovering their own inner way of changing the world?
Start with the question that won't leave you alone. Not the one that sounds impressive at a networking event, but the one that keeps you up at night, the one you keep circling back to even when it feels too big, too personal, or too inconvenient. That's usually the one worth following.
And don't wait until you feel credentialed enough or ready enough. The work needs you now, with exactly what you have. Spelman already gave you more than you know. The rest is just having the courage to use it.
To connect with Britni-
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/britni-wilcher
Email Address: [email protected]
Other media: https://www.britni-wilcher.com/home
