Claire Holba is an Immigration Policy Analyst at the Niskanen Center, where she leads Niskanen’s U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and humanitarian policy portfolio. Her work focuses on building multi-sector support and developing policy around community-based reception models, emphasizing the state and local levels. Her research highlights the nexus of state economies and humanitarianism as well as effective models for integration. She participates in various global networks and forums including the GRSI (Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative) and as a steering committee member of IRISE (the International Refugee Integration and Settlement Exchange).

Holba holds a Master of Science in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from DePaul University with a geographic focus on the Asia-Pacific. Previously, Holba led research and human rights projects overseas with refugee communities in camps in South and Southeast Asia, developing education access for students displaced by conflict and building capacity of NGOs to document and report human rights violations. Her research on complementary pathways out of protracted displacement has been featured in the United Nations Refugee Higher Education Global Newsletter.

She was a 2023 recipient of the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship, a program equipping select graduates to contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. Through the program, she completed an intensive Mandarin Chinese language program in Taiwan during summer 2023 and she continues to study Chinese.

Holba is a proud Hoosier and maintains direct ties to her home state as a Senior Fellow and co-founder of Patchwork Indy, where she helped drive Indiana to become the number one state in the country for American sponsors applying to be matched by the U.S. government to refugee families in need of safety.