About Me
I am a Senior Research Scientist and Demographer at the RAND Corporation where I apply the tools of statistics, demography, and survey research to produce non-partisan, objective analyses for policy makers and practitioners. My research focuses on demographic trends in the United States, with a focus on linkages between school, work, and health across the life course. I have 25 years of experience designing and administering surveys, analyzing survey data, and using longitudinal data to address public policy issues in education, labor, health, and population. Additionally, I have expertise in the design and analysis of surveys administered to hard-to-study populations. My research has been funded by an array of government agencies and foundations, including the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California State Treasurer’s Office, the California Department of Finance, the American Petroleum Institute, the New York City Mayor's Office, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the ECMC Foundation. My research has been cited over 5,700 times and has appeared in over 100 news outlets, including National Public Radio, The New York Times, NBC News, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and U.S. News and World Report. I am currently serving on the editorial board of Population Research and Policy Review. Previously, I was a Research Scientist at RTI International and a Senior Fellow at Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research. I hold a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, a M.A. from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. from Ohio University.
My Curriculum Vitae Here
My Google Scholar Profile Here
My Current Research Portfolio
My research portfolio is currently anchored by two projects. First, I am the director of RAND Survey Panels, which operates six probability-based internet panels whose members complete surveys on issues critical to policymakers and public officials. I am the Principal Investigator of the two newest panels in our collection: the RAND American Youth Panel and the RAND American Parents Panel. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the RAND American Youth Panel is a longitudinal panel that tracks a nationally representative sample of approximately 4,000 youth between the ages of 12 and 21. The RAND American Parents Panel is a complementary longitudinal panel that surveys parents and guardians of 12-17 year-olds who participate in the RAND American Youth Panel.
Second, for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, I am leading the development of the World Trade Center Youth Research Cohort. This project is a team science, community-based collaboration that will retrospectively construct a cohort of individuals who were children living in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn at the time of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers. This cohort will serve as the central scientific hub to comprehensively study the long-term effects of exposure to the attacks on the health and wellbeing of children directly affected by 9/11.