Pamela Coukos

Working IDEAL CEO and co-founder Pamela Coukos, JD, PhD is a nationally recognized expert on equity analytics, applying research and experience to build more equitable and inclusive workplaces and business processes. She uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies to understand and identify barriers and to develop metrics to assess progress. She has assessed racial and gender equity at scores of large and small companies, local governments and education, labor and nonprofit organizations. Some of her recent notable projects include leading our interdisciplinary team in their work on the BlackRock racial equity audit, and developing and deploying our unique methodology for pay equity assessment and compensation program design for a number of leading national civil rights nonprofit organizations. She is a former civil rights attorney and served as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Labor. 

Pam is currently advising companies and organizations on racial equity, gender equity, pay equity, inclusive culture, leadership practices, and affirmative action. She performs high quality assessments of workplace data and practices, and helps organizations design hiring, promotion, and compensation programs grounded in values of transparency and equity and aligned with core business needs and organizational mission. She works with leaders on using this work to advance strategic opportunities, create more effective organizational structures, build trust and engagement, and ensure long term financial sustainability. Pam also uses her long experience as a worker advocate to provide independence and credibility to her recommendations and ensure the project reflects the needs and interests of all stakeholders. 

Pam is a former Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, where she provided strategic guidance on the agency’s enforcement and outreach programs, and led the development of new investigative guidelines to assess federal contractor pay systems and practices for potential sex and race discrimination. She also served as a technical subject matter expert for the agency’s work on collection of contractor pay data, and provided technical assistance on statistical, legal and factual issues in the agency’s investigations of hiring and promotion and evaluation of affirmative action programs.  

Prior to joining DOL, Pam was Of Counsel to the law firm of Mehri & Skalet PLLC, where she represented plaintiffs in employment discrimination class actions. She served as a key member of the litigation and settlement team in Abdullah v. The Coca-Cola Company, a landmark case providing record financial and innovative programmatic relief to thousands of African-American class members for pay and promotion claims.

Pam is also an experienced campaign professional, having worked at the management level on Presidential, statewide, and local campaigns across multiple cycles.  She has particular expertise in organizing, data, get out the vote and voter protection work and has been especially successful in building and empowering volunteer leaders. She co-founded the Reeb Voting Rights Project, a nonpartisan volunteer faith-based organization that has worked for ten years to counter voter suppression tactics and support voter education and outreach in marginalized communities in multiple states.

Pam began her legal career two decades ago working on federal legislation and impact litigation as a staff attorney for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (known today as Legal Momentum) and as the Public Policy Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In 2009-2010 she served as the California State Training Director for Organizing for America, training volunteer leaders working to support the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

In 2011 Pam completed her PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation applied quantitative and qualitative analysis to assess the effects of politics, law, and social movements on the development of sexual harassment law in the United States. Pam received her JD from Harvard Law School in 1994 and is a graduate of Brown University.