Gabrielle Sorresso, a Brooks School PhD student, has received a 2026 Horowitz Foundation Award from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy and was selected for the Foundation’s Irving Louis Horowitz Award, which recognizes the most outstanding project among all award recipients.

Sorresso earned the recognition for her dissertation research, “Abortion Bans and Maternal Health Care: Evidence from Dobbs.”

Her research provides large-scale evidence on how state abortion bans have affected maternal healthcare following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Using healthcare claims data, Sorresso estimates the causal effects of abortion bans on healthcare utilization and care among pregnant women while also examining changes in patient risk profiles and the availability of obstetric and gynecological care providers.

The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy supports emerging scholars whose research addresses pressing contemporary issues in the social sciences. Through its annual awards program, the Foundation provides dissertation-level funding to PhD students conducting policy-relevant research.

According to the Foundation, this year’s competition was highly selective.

“This year we received 845 applications,” said Ayse Akincigil, chair of the Foundation. “The awards are competitive: the twenty applicants who are receiving awards this year represent 2.4% of those who applied.”

The Brooks PhD Program in Public Policy

The Brooks School features a unique PhD program that allows students to be advised, mentored, and funded by Brooks School faculty, whether they are pursuing a PhD in Public Policy, Economics, or Sociology. This interdisciplinary model enables students to explore diverse policy areas ranging from health and social policy to environmental and technology policy.