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Our Affiliates

 

Meet the faculty and graduate students who are dedicated to study population research and develop demographic knowledge and skills at Cornell.

 

Faculty Affiliates

Those in bold are also Demography Field Faculty.

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan
Professor Emeritus, Psychology and Neurobiology & Behavior
Ph.D., Physiological Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1971
Research interests: animal social & family relationships; hormonal & neural mechanisms of social behavior

Amanda Agan
Associate Professor, Public Policy and Department of Economics
PhD, Economics, University of Chicago, 2013
Research interests: economics of crime, labor economics, discrimination

Misha Ailsworth
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Ph.D., Community Research and Action, Vanderbilt University
Research interests:  impact of families, communities, and schools in shaping Black girls’ mental health and wellness using a cultural-assets perspective

Sule Alan
Professor, Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
PhD, Economics, McMaster University, 2002
Research interests: education, education and social policy evaluations, human and social capital formation and gender inequality

AJ Alvero
Assistant Research Professor
Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society
Ph.D., Sociology of Education & Education Data Science, Stanford University, 2022
Research interests: big data, identity, artificial intelligence, race/ethnicity, NLP

Florio Arguillas
Research Associate
Cornell Center for Social Sciences Research Support
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2011
Research Interests: international labor migration; migration systems; migration and development; family reunification; transnationalism; transnational communities and practices

Rosemary Avery
Professor of Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Family Resource Management, Ohio State University, 1988
Research interests: family formation via adoption of special needs children, impact of media images on consumer choice

Laura Barré
Assistant Clinical Professor of Nutritional Sciences
M.D., Dartmouth Medical School, 2001
Research interests: nutrition and obesity in vulnerable populations (older adults and those with serious mental illness); impact of social media on food choices and eating behaviors

Christopher Barrett
Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management
International Professor of Agriculture
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., Agricultural Economics and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994
Research interests: development economics; environmental and resource economics; international economics

Colleen Barry
Dean of the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Health Policy, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2004
Research interests: health and social policies; mental health, addiction and gun violence.

Alaka Basu
Visiting Scholar and Former Professor of Global Development
M.Sc. (Medical Demography), Centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Research interests: population studies; reproductive health and family planning; gender and development; child health and mortality; culture and demographic behavior

Victoria Beard
Professor, Associate Dean of Research, Department of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia
Research interests: comparative urbanization and international development planning

Laura Bellows
Associate Professor, Division of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Community Nutrition, Colorado State University
Research interests: community-based interventions, healthy eating, physical activity, early childhood audiences, intervention design

Kendra Bischoff
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 2011
Research interests: social stratification and inequality ; sociology of education; urban sociology

Francine D. Blau
Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Labor Relations and Professor of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University, 1975
Research interests: labor economics, economics of gender, economic demography, international comparisons

William C. Block
Research Associate
Cornell Center for Social Sciences Research Support
Ph.D., History, University of Minnesota, 2000
Research interests: social, economic, and health data; metadata

James G. Booth
Department Chair, Professor, Department of Statistics and Data Science
Ph.D., Statistics, University of Kentucky, 1987
Research interests: statistical modeling including: categorical data analysis, generalized linear, hierarchical and mixed models

Nicolas Bottan
Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018
Research interests: public economics, behavioral economics, urban economics, labor economics

Danah Boyd 
Geri Gay Professor of Communication
Ph.D., Information, University of California-Berkeley, 2008
Research interests: intersection of technology and society, structural inequity, data legitimacy

Charles Brainerd
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Michigan State University, 1970
Research interests: development of cognitive processes in normal and atypical children; adult cognition

David L. Brown
International Professor Emeritus of Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology/demography, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, 1974
Research interests: internal migration and population redistribution; poverty and inequality; aging

Susanne Bruyere
Professor of Disability Studies, Yang-Tan Institute
Research interests: Public policy on employment and disability; workplace policies and practices improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities

Jamie Budnick
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan
Research interests: gender, sexuality, feminist science studies

Diane Burton
Professor
Human Resource Studies Department, ILR School
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 1996
Research interests: organizational sociology; entrepreneurship; employment relationships; inequality

Sahara Byrne
Senior Associate Dean, Professor of Communication
Ph.D., Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007
Research interests: unintended effects of persuasive messaging; youth and media; health communication

Romaine Campbell
Assistant Professor, Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University
Research interests: racial inequality; labor economics; economics of crime

Colleen Carey
Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, Johns Hopkins University, 2013
Research interests: health care

Julie H. Carmalt
Associate Director, Senior Lecturer, Sloan Program in Health Administration
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, 2009
Research interests: population health, relationships and health, obesity and risky behavior.

John Carruthers
Director of Graduate Studies, Regional Science; Associate Professor, City & Regional Planning
Ph.D., University of Washington
Research interests: human immigration, environmental quality of life, economic growth, sustainable cities

Marianella Casasola
Senior Associate Dean, College of Human Ecology
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Texas-Austin, 2000
Research interests: infant cognitive development and early word learning, cognition and language acquisition

Patricia Cassano
Professor of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Epidemiology, University of Washington, 1987
Research interests: nutrition and genetics

John Cawley
Professor of Economics & Public Policy; Co-Director, Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy; Department of Economics
Ph.D., Economics , University of Chicago, 1999
Research interests: health economics

Stephen Ceci
Helen L. Carr Professor of Developmental Psychology
Ph.D., Development Psychology, University of Exeter, 1978
Research interests: alternatives to psychometric theories of intellectual development; the bio-ecological theory of intelligence; ecological models of cognitive development; children’s testimonial competence; the accuracy of children’s memory

E-Shien Chang
Assistant Professor of Gerontology in Medicine
Ph.D., Yale University, 2021
Research interests: elder abuse, ageism, social determinants of health, family caregiving

Michael Charles
Assistant Professor, Biological & Environmental Engineering
Ph.D., The Ohio State University
Research interests: the intersections of nature and health, just and sovereign food systems, sustainable engineering, interface of communities and computational modeling

Nancy Chau
Professor of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, 1996
Research interests: international trade; regional economics; development economics

Maria Lorena Cook
Professor Emeritus
Department of International and Comparative Labor and Department of Labor Relations, Law, and History
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California-Berkeley
Research interests: policy and advocacy related to unauthorized migrants and migration

Monica Cornejo
Assistant Professor of Communication
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2022
Research interests: undocumented migration, interpersonal communcation, health & well-being, advocacy communication

Benjamin Cornwell
Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago, 2007
Research interests: social network analysis; organizations; economic sociology; social stratification; microinteraction

Erin York Cornwell
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago, 2008
Research interests: sociology of health; residential context; social isolation; aging

Katherine Dickin
Associate Professor Emeritus, Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences
PhD, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, 2003
Research interests: maternal and child nutrition, food insecurity, community-based program effectiveness

Moon Duchin
Professor of Mathematics and Public Policy
PhD, Mathematics, University of Chicago, 2005
Research Interests: modeling and mechanism design for electoral systems; networks, geospatial, demographic data; Markov chains and discrete geometry

Mary Jo Dudley
Senior Extension Associate; Director, Cornell Farmworkers Program
Department of Global Development
MRP, Regional Planning, Cornell University, 1996
Research interests: immigrant workers; farmworkers; US-Latin American relation; migration from Latin America to the US; and immigrant communities in the US

Rachel Dunifon
Dean, College of Human Ecology and Professor of Public Policy
Ph.D., Human Development, Northwestern University, 1999
Research interests: child and family policy

John Eckenrode
Professor Emeritus of Human Development
Ph.D., Social Psychology, Tufts University 1979
Research interests: child abuse and neglect, including official child maltreatment reports, the academic effects of child abuse and neglect, and the long-term effects of a program of home visitation on the development of high-risk mothers and their children

Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue
Associate Director, Cornell Population Center
Professor of Global Development
Ph.D., Rural Sociology and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University, 1997
Research interests: sociology of education; demography of inequality; demographic transitions in sub-Saharan Africa

Peter Enns
Robert S. Harrison Director, Cornell Center for Social Sciences
Professor of Government
Ph.D., Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007
Research interests: public opinion, representation, mass incarceration and inequality

Gary W. Evans
Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Ecology
Department of Design and Environmental Analysis; Interim Director of Graduate Studies in Design + Environmental Analysis; Department of Human Development
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Massachusetts
Research interests: role of physical and social factors in early childhood on the life course trajectory of mental and health and stress; role of elevated cumulative risk exposure in income-related health disparities in children and youth

Gary Fields
Professor Emeritus of Economics; John P. Windmuller Chair of International and Comparative Labor
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 1972
Research interests: economic development, global economy, human resources management, international and comparative workplace studies, labor economics, leadership, older workers, aging and pensions, rights of working people, social insurance and welfare, wage differentials and inequality

Roger Figueroa
Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017
Research interests: obesity, public health, research methods

Julia L. Finkelstein
Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition; The Follett Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Sc.D., Nutritional Epidemiology, Harvard University, 2011
Research interests: micronutrients and maternal and child health; nutrition and neglected tropical diseases; applications of GIS and epidemiologic methods to public health research, with emphasis on infectious disease, nutritional, and reproductive epidemiology; Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia

Maria Fitzpatrick
Professor of Economics & Public Policy; Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Virginia, 2008
Research Interests: economics of education; labor economics; public economics

Gustavo Flores-Macias
Professor of Government and Public Policy
Ph.D., Comparative Government, Georgetown University, 2008
Research interests: the politics of economic reform; the effects of migration in labor-exporting countries

Maria Cristina Garcia
Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies
Ph.D., History, University of Texas, Austin, 1990
Research interests: refugees; immigrants; exiles; transnationals in the Americas

Rick Geddes
Professor of Economics & Public Policy; Director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1991
Research interests: infrastructure policy; utility regulation; postal services; women’s property rights

Sarah Giroux
Associate Professor of the Practice of Global Development; Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Strategic Programs
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2011
Research interests: demographic training and research; sub-Saharan Africa

Shannon Gleeson
Professor of Labor Relations, Law & History
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, University of California, Berkeley, 2008
Research interests: experiences of low-wage workers; the role of immigrant documentation status; legal mobilization

Benjamin Goldman
Assistant Professor of Economics
PhD, Economics, Harvard University, 2024
Research interests: labor and public economics, with an emphasis on race- and class-based economic disparities in the United States

Michael Goldstein
Professor of Psychology; Director of the Robert S. Harrison College Scholar Program
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology and Animal Behavior, Indiana University, 2001
Research interests: Infant development in the context of the family, with a focus on mechanisms of social learning

Amelia Greiner Safi
Professor of Practice; Department of Public & Ecosystem Health
Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine and Communication
Ph.D., Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2011
Research interests: public health, environmental/ecological health, policy, and communication.

Matthew Hall
Director, Cornell Population Center
Director, Program for Applied Demographics
Professor of Public Policy & Sociology
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography from Penn State University, 2010
Research interests: immigration; racial/ethnic inequality; residential segregation; population redistribution; spatial demography

Karla Hanson
Professor of Practice of Public Health; Department of Public & Ecosystem Health
Ph.D., Public Administration, New York University, 1995
Research interests: health and social policy for children and families; food insecurity; obesity

Johannes Haushofer
Professor of Economics and Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Zurich, 2012
Ph.D., Neurobiology, Harvard University, 2008
Research interests: development & behavioral economics

Douglas Heckathorn
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Kansas, 1974
Research interests: social exchange across macrosocial categories, including race and ethnicity, gender, age, and economic status, to analyze quantitatively both social structure and the power differentials encoded in those structures

Thomas Hirschl
Professor of Development Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986
Research interests: social stratification; research methods and statistics; state and local demography

Daniel Hirschman
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan, 2016
Research interests: economic sociology, race and racism, science studies, climate change, finance, higher education

William Hobbs
Assistant Professor of Psychology & Government
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, San Diego, 2016
Research interests: social effects of government policies and how people adapt to changes in their lives

Lee Humphreys
Professor and Department Chair, Communication
Ph.D., Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 2007
Research interests: technology/media, gender, privacy, mobilities

Tristan Ivory
Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Labor
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 2015
Research interests: International Migration, Race and Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Mobility, Labor Market Inequality, Sub-Saharan African Societies, Japanese Society

George H. Jakubson
Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, University of Wisconsin, 1983
Research interests:  labor economics; econometrics; welfare policy; family and household structure

David Just
Susan Eckert Lynch Professor in Science and Business; Director of the Graduate Studies Program
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 2001
Research interests: risk and uncertainty; information; behavioral economics

Lawrence M. Kahn
Professor Emeritus of Economics and Labor Relations
Ph.D., Economics, University of California-Berkeley, 1975
Research interests:  wage inequality; unemployment; employment protection; gender and the labor market; immigration; sports economics

Ravi Kanbur
T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs; International Professor of Applied Economics and Management; Professor of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, University of Oxford, 1981
Research Interests: public finance; theory of income distribution; theory of decision-making under uncertainty; inequality; poverty and development

Max Kapustin
Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 2016
Research interests: reduction in violence in urban settings; improved life outcomes of disadvantaged youth and adults

Mary Fainsod Katzenstein
Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor of American Studies, Emerita
Department of Government
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1975
Research interests: movement activism; incarceration and citizenship in the United States; gender issues; incarceration and race; feminist activism

Donald Kenkel
Andrew Dickson White Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1987
Research interests: health economics; public sector economics

Rachel Bezner Kerr
Professor of Global Development; Director of Graduate Studies, Graduate Field of Development Studies; Director of Institute for African Development, Global Cornell
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2006
Research interests: sustainable agriculture; food security; health, nutrition and social inequalities; primary focus in southern Africa

Philipp Kircher
Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations
Ph.D., Economics, University of Bonn, 2006
Research interests: labor markets, wage setting and job assignment, epidemics and behavior change

Dan Kowal
Associate Professor
Department of Statistics and Data Science
PhD, Statistics, Cornell University, 2017
Research interests: Bayesian inference, dependent data analysis (e.g., time series, longitudinal data, spatial data, hierarchical/mixed models, etc.), missing data, and regression modeling.

Cynthia Lin Lawell
Associate Professor and the Robert Dyson Sesquicentennial Chair
Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics
Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University, 2006
Research interests: environmental and public policy

Tashara M. Leak
Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Nutrition, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 2015
Research Interest: public health nutrition, child and adolescent nutrition, poverty, food security, health disparities

Yael Levitte
Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, Academic Affairs
Ph.D., Economic Geography, University of Toronto, 2003
Research interests: entry and retention of women in the science labor force; regional economic development; sustainable development

Chuan Liao
Assistant Professor, Department of Global Development
Ph.D., Natural Resources & Environment, Cornell University, 2015
Research interests: agrifood system transformation, sustainable energy transition, global dryland sustainability, and climate change adaptation.

Daniel Lichter
Ferris Family Professor of Sociology & Public Policy, Emeritus
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981
Research interests: family and welfare policy; children’s changing living arrangements and poverty; cohabitation and marriage among unwed mothers; welfare incentive effects on the family; interracial marriage and cohabitation; new destinations of recent immigrants; changing patterns of concentrated poverty in rural areas

Sadé Lindsay
Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Sociology
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, The Ohio State University, 2021
Research interests: racial inequality; prison reentry and employment; women’s incarceration; and drug use and policy

Jiawei Liu
Research Associate, Department of Communication
Ph.D., Mass Communications, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research interests: content and effects of mass media and social media messages in public health issues and public policy issues

Corinna Loeckenhoff
Janet and Gordon Lankton Professor of Developmental Psychology, Professor of Gerontology in Medicine
Ph.D., Personality Psychology, Stanford University, 2024
Research interests: Age differences in time horizons, personality, and emotional experience and their influence on mental and physical health across the life span

William Lodge II
Assistant Professor, Health Equity and Public Policy
PhD, Behavioral & Social Sciences, Brown University, 2024
Research interests: HIV primary and secondary prevention; Gender and sexual minority health; Behavioral interventions and mixed-methods research; and Global health policy and health equity

Michael Lovenheim
Professor
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 2008
Research interests: economics of education (K-12 and higher); local public finance and taxation; consumer behavior

Vida Maralani
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2006
Research interests: social demography; social stratification and inequality; gender; health; education

Alan Mathios
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Pennsylvania , 1985
Research interests: intersection of advertising policy and health; government tax policy and its impact on smoking onset and cessation

David Matteson
Professor of Statistics and Data Science and Social Statistics
Director, National Institute of Statistical Sciences
Ph.D., Statistics, University of Chicago, 2008
Research interests: time series; spatio-temporal statistics; biostatistics; Bayesian statistics; functional data analysis; econometrics; machine learning; point processes; semi-parametrics and non-parametrics

Saurabh Mehta
The Janet and Gordon Lankton Professor of Global Health, Epidemiology, and Nutrition
M.B.B.S., All India Institute of Medical Sciences, 2003
Sc.D., Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard University, 2009
Research interests: global health; infectious disease epidemiology; links between nutrition and immune status; maternal and child health

Jamila Michener
Associate Professor of Government
Senior Associate Dean of Public Engagement, Brooks School
Director of the Cornell Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Chicago, 2011
Research interests:  American politics; poverty and inequality; political participation; race and ethnic politics; urban politics; public policy

Douglas Miller
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, Princeton University, 2000
Research interests: social policy; economic environment and health outcomes.

Laurie Miller
Senior Lecturer; Associate Director, MPA Program, Public Engagement
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
MPA Columbia University, Ed.M. Harvard University
Research interests: Income inequality, immigration, health, education, housing, environmental justice, race, ender, political polarization and representation.

Kelly Musick
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000
Research interests: family demography; social inequality; public policy

Jeff Niederdeppe
Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development, Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy; Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Communication and Public Policy
Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development, Brooks
Ph.D., Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 2006
Research interests: effects of mediated messages on health behavior, social policy, and health equity

Angela Odoms-Young
Nancy Schlegel Meinig Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition
Ph.D., Community Nutrition, Cornell University 1999
Research interests: Social and structural disadvantage, Maternal and Child nutrition, Food Insecurity, Food and Nutrition Assistance Policy, Community-based Nutrition and Food interventions

Anthony Ong
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Southern California, 2002
Research interests: individual differences in vulnerability and resilience to environmental influences

Barum Park
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, New York University, 2020
Research interests: political sociology, social networks, and social mobility

Pilar Parra
Research Associate & Senior Lecturer of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1989
Research interests: immigration; nutrition, diet and chronic disease; health status of minorities (culture, immigration); aging minorities in the U.S.

Eleonora Patacchini
Professor, Economics
Ph.D., Economics, University of Southampton, 2004
Ph.D., Statistics, Sapienza University, 2002
Research interests: gender, family dynamics, migrations, social networks

Max J. Pfeffer
Professor Emeritus of Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986
Research interests: international migration; rural labor markets; health care access; environmental policy

Karl Pillemer
Hazel E. Reed Professor, Department of Psychology; Professor of Gerontology in Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
Ph.D., Sociology, Brandeis University, 1985
Research interests: human development over the life course, with a special emphasis on family and social relationships in middle age and beyond

Ned J. Place
Professor; Director, Endocrinology Section, Animal Health Diagnostic Center
Department of Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences
MD; Ph.D., Medicine (Ob/Gyn); Zoology, University of Rochester (MD); University of Washington (Ph.D.), 1987 (MD); 2000 (Ph.D.)
Research interests: female reproductive aging; ovarian physiology; neuroendocrinology and behavior

Adriana Reyes
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Public Policy,
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, Pennsylvania State University, 2016
Research interests: family demography and health disparities across the life course, particularly as adults grow older

Valerie Reyna
Professor of Human Development and Psychology; Co-director, Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research; Co-Director, Cornell University Magnetic Resonance Imaging Facility
Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Rockefeller University, 1981
Research interests: human judgment and decision making; numeracy and quantitative reasoning; risk and uncertainty; medical decision making; social judgment; false memory

Leslie Reynolds
Research Support Specialist, Program on Applied Demographics
Research interests: applied demography, demographic methods, data quality, social inequality, population dynamics, population projections

Peter Rich
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, New York University, 2016
Research interests: how individual decisions in housing, school, and marriage markets reflect and potentially reinforce racial and economic inequalities; how such decisions are impacted by policy and local context

David Sahn
International Professor of Economics; Director, Cornell University Food and Nutrition Policy Program (CFNPP)
Division of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Economics
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984
Research interests: economic development; applied econometrics; labor economics; economics of health and education; the effect of economic policy transitions in Africa and Eastern Europe on poverty and income distribution labor markets and gender issues in developing countries; pricing policy in social sectors food and nutrition policy

Nicolas Sanders
Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy; Director of Graduate Studies
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Davis
Research interests: environmental policy and regulation, environmental quality, and health

Seth Sanders
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1993
Research interests: labor economics and econometrics; population research

Sharon Sassler
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology/Demography, Brown University, 1995
Research interests: attributes of men who become step-fathers; the timing and circumstances of the transition to fatherhood; effect of union transitions on the health and well-being of single mothers and their offspring; family formation views of cohabiting couples and relationship progression in interracial relationships

Stephan J. Schmidt
Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Planning and Policy Development, Rutgers University, 2006
Research interests: urban environmental issues and policy making; land use planning; social and political context of public space provision

Landon Schnabel
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, Indiana University, 2019
Research interests: gender inequality; social inequality related to sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and class

William Schpero
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Department of Population Health Sciences
Ph.D., Health Policy and Management , Yale University, 2019
Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Research interests: health economics; medicaid policy; health care safety net; health care disparities

John Sipple
Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Global Development
Ph.D., Education, University of Michigan, 1997
Research interests: organizational response to state and federal policy; policy implementation; sociology of education; neo-institutionalism; rural schools and communities

Elliott G. Smith
Research Associate; Associate Director, National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect
Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, Cornell University, 1998
Research interests: The outcomes and well-being of children who have suffered maltreatment by their caregivers

Jeffrey Sobal
Professor Emeritus
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 1978
Research interests: nutrition; obesity; health

Richard Stedman
Professor and Department Chair of Natural Resources and the Environment
Ph.D., Sociology and Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research interests: the challenges that rapid social and ecological changes pose for the sustainability of forested ecosystems, watersheds, and human communities

Bryan Sykes
Associate Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology & Demography, University of California – Berkeley
Research interests: general demography, statistical & demographic methods, population health, research methodology, computational methods, law & society, criminology, inequality/social stratification

Laura Tach
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology and Social Policy, Harvard University, 2010
Research interests: poverty & public policy; family demography; neighborhood inequality

Felix Thoemmes
Associate Professor of Human Development; Department Chair, Psychology
Ph.D., Quantitative Psychology, Arizona State University, 2009
Research interests: quantitative methods and design; causal inference; missing data

Lowell Turner
Professor Emeritus of International and Comparative Labor; Founding Director, The Worker Institute
School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1990
Research interests: politics; urban labor movements; coalition building; global warming; and the civic integration of immigrant workers

Lars Vilhuber
Executive Director, Labor Dynamics Institute; Senior Research Associate
Department of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, Université de Montréal, 1999
Research interests: statistical disclosure limitation issues; effects and causes of mass layoffs; worker mobility; dynamics of the local labor market

Jan Vink
Senior Extension Associate
Program on Applied Demographics
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
M.S., Econometrics, University of Groningen, 1986
Research interests: applied demographics; population projections; population estimates; state and local demography

Sarah von Schrader
Director of Research and Program Evaluation, Yang-Tan Institute
Ph.D., Education Measurement and Statistics, University of Iowa, 2006
Research interests: Disability inclusion in the workplace, Employer practices, Implementation science

Maureen R. Waller
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy; Acting Director of Graduate Studies
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, Princeton University, 1997
Research interests: marriage, fatherhood, and child support in low-income communities in the United States

Qi Wang
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Psychology, Harvard University, 2000
Research Interests: intersection of cognitive and social development, focusing on the development of autobiographical memory

Mildred Warner
Professor of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 1997
Research interests: devolution and privatization in local, state, and national policy and their impacts on community and economic development

Kim Weeden
Jan Rock Zubrow ’77 Professor of Sociology; Director, Center for the Study of Inequality
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 1999
Research Interests: social inequality; poverty; social class; gender inequality; work-family policies

Martin T. Wells
Charles A. Alexander Professor of Statistical Sciences
Ph.D., Mathematics, University of California, 1987
Research interests: applied and theoretical statistics and sometimes cross the boundary into applied probability

Nancy Wells
Senior Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Education; Professor of Design & Environmental Analysis
Ph.D., Psychology & Architecture, University of Michigan, 2000
Research interests: influence of the built and natural environment on human health and well-being through the life course; effects of housing and neighborhood characteristics on mental and physical health; influence of nature access on cognitive functioning and psychological well-being; effects of neighborhood and community design features on physical activity and diet.

Elaine Wethington
Professor Emeritus of Human Development & Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan, 1987
Research interests: sociology of mental health; epidemiology of mental and stress-related illness; sociology of aging and the life course; work-family integration, sociology of the family

Janis Whitlock
Research Scientist Emerita; Lecturer
Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research; Department of Human Development
Ph.D., Human Development, Cornell University, 2003
Research interests: adolescent and young adult mental health and wellbeing

Matthew Wilkens
Associate Professor of Information Science
Ph.D., Literature, Duke University
Research interests: computational methods in the humanities, natural language processing, historical economic and demographic change, geographic analysis of large textual corpora.

Eleanor Wilking
Assistant Professor of Law
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 2018
Research interests: public finance, labor/employment, law and economics

Lindy Williams
Professor Emeritus of Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology, Brown University, 1987
Research interests:  family, gender, life course, Southeast Asia

Wenfei Xu
Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Urban Planning, Columbia University, 2022
Research interests: Neighborhood change, segregation and stratification, big data, urban data science, housing policy

Stephen W. Yale-Loehr
Professor of Immigration Law Practice
Cornell Law School
J.D., Cornell University, 1981
Research interests: U.S. immigration, asylum law

Caroline Yancey
Professor of Practice, Department of Public & Ecosystem Health
Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
Research interests: disease surveillance, epidemiology, zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, and international capacity building

Duanyi Yang
Assistant Professor of Labor Relations, Law, and History
Ph.D., MIT
Research interests: labor relations, gender, work and family policies, worker voice and union

Cristobal Young
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, Princeton University, 2010
Research Interests: economic sociology, stratification, statistical methods

John Zinda
Associate Professor of Global Development
Director, Polson Institute for Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology and Community & Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2013
Research interests: environmental sociology, risk and disaster, flood risk exposure and management, urban inequality, land use and land cover change, rural livelihoods, migration

Postdoctoral Affiliates

Anna Church, Cornell Population Center

Luisa Cortesi, Science and Technology Studies and Anthropology

MC Forelle, Cornell Tech

Laura Huber, Government

Jiwon Lee, Cornell Population Center

Meiying Li, Brooks Public Policy

Sijing Shao, Psychology

Shuai Zhou, Global Development

Gaoxia Zhu, Human Development

Graduate Student Affiliates

Those in bold are also Demography Minors.

Erika Abbott (SOC)
Research interests: family, poverty, public policy, inequality, qualitative and mixed methods

Charlotte Austin (PYSCH)
Research interests: moral psychology

Iman Alsmadi (SOC)
Research interests: crimmigration, incarceration, reentry media narratives, inequality

Raul Armenta (SOC)
Research interests: sociology of education, inequality & social stratification, incarceration, policing, political formations

Sophie Belfield (HD)
Research interests: menstrual pain across the life course, global health

Sohinee Bera (HD)
Research interests: development communication, health policy, gender, labor, risk governance

Roberta Betancourt (ECON)
Research interests: behavioral/experimental, industrial organization, and public economics

Ezgi Bilgin (HD)
Research interests: autobiographical memory, collective memory

Daphne Blakey (PUBPOL)
Research interests: poverty, incarceration

Maria Boa (GDEV)
Research interests: sustainability of food systems, climate-resilience, rural development and dynamics of social change

Helen Burkhardt (ECON)
Research interests: labor economics, economics of gender, economic history, immigration, inequality

Gabriel Butler (PUBPOL)
Research interests: health, labor, econometrics, machine learning

Jadon Buzzard (ECON)
Research interests: public economic & labor economics, with an emphasis on policing, vulnerable populations, and risky behaviors

Celeste Carmichael (NTRES)
Research interests: youth and families, STEM education, K-12 learning, environmental education

Beatrix Carmona (NUTR)
Research interests: workplace and contextual drivers of poor health and job turnover, especially in caregiving

Xinghan Chen (AAP)
Research interests: urban data science

Kenjin Chang (DEA)
Research interests: diet and food choice, sustainability.

Elisa (yu-chun) Cheng (ECON)
Research interests: public finance

Kritika Dahal (PUBPOL)
Research interests: Migration, Labor, Refugees

Samantha De Leon Sautu (HD)
Research interests: psychophysiology of social yielding

Xinyi Deng (PSYCH)
Research interests: risky decision making, neural correlates, social anhedonia, amotivation, social reward processing

Dieynab Diatta (AEM)
Research interests: development economics

Karina Edouard (ANTHR)
Research interests: immigration, intergenerational trauma, health equity,  Afro-Caribbean diasporic communities

Wicia Fang (PSYCH)
Research interests: socioeconomic inequality, social networks, person perception, social ties

Nan Feng (SOC)
Research interests: social network analysis, social inequality, quantitative methodology, economic sociology

Maria-Jose (Majo) Flor-Agreda (SOC)
Research interests: inequality, economic sociology and organizations, gender

Kathryn Foster (DSOC)
Research interests: migration, environmental justice

Gwyneth Frederick (DNS)
Research interests: Community food systems, Health equity, nutrition environment

Katharina Geppert (SOC)
Research interests: family; migration

Thelonious Goerz (SOC)
Research interests: demography, spatial inequality, neighborhoods, health and aging, quantitative methods

Samantha Gold (PUBPOL)
Research interests: Health economics, Behavioral economics

Aalayna Green (NTRES)
Research interests: global inequality; environmental policy and justice; natural resource management; conservation security

Katrina Hamilton (SOC)
Research interests: spatial inequality, demography, health, deaths of despair, work

Zhuang Han (GDEV)
Research interests: inequality and demographic dividend, family demography, labor sociology, education

Yuexing Hao (HCD)
Research interests: health intelligence, human-computer interaction, VR/AR

Ryo Hasegawa (AEM)
Research interests: labor, health, education

Emiliano Harris (ECON)
Research interests: public economics, urban economics, economic history

Adrian Haws (AEM)
Research interests: labor economics, economic history

Senan Hogan-Hennessy (ECON)
Research interests: empirical economics, labor economics, inequality

Lydia Homandberg (SOC & PUBPOL)
Research interests: computational demography, health disparities

Emily Jackson (GOV)
Research interests: reproductive politics, abortion, family planning, public opinion, gender, Latin America

Kyunghee Kang (GDEV)
Research interests: climate migration, development-induced displacement, refugee, international protection, global governance

Vrinda Kapoor (AEM)
Research interests: labor economics, health economics, gender inequality

Emil Kee-Tui (AEM)
Research interests: environment and human health

Chae Kim (SOC)
Research interests: family, fertility, gender

Jiwoo Kim (PSY)
Research interests: causal mediation models, longitudinal data, inequality, causal graphic model, potential outcomes

Sang-O Kim (CRP)
Research interests: aging society, mobility of care

Ash Kopetzky (CRP)
Research interests: community space vacancy, modes of speculation, community memory impact

Elena Krasovskaia (AEM)
Research interests: food, public, behavioral, and experimental economics

Ashwin Kumar (ILR)
Research interests: international labor migration, migration governance, critical demography, labor governance

Hazel Lee, (Regional Science)
Research interests: sustainable transition, socio technical energy transition, urbanization

Hyo Joo Lee (SOC)
Research interests: parental investment, gender inequality in the labor market

Shirley Le Penne (GOV)
Research interests: Incarceration; Colonialism; France; Algeria; War

Lixin Li (SOC)
Research interests: gender inequality, division of labor

Ruiling Li (SOC)
Research interests: Work, technology, culture, political economy

Hao Liang (SOC)
Research interests: immigration, residential segregation, sequence analysis and methodology

Diyang Lin (GDEV)
Research interests: impact of technology and digitalisation on education and employment; migration under globalization and digitalisation

Andong Liu (PUBPOL)
Research interests: gentrification, housing

Samuel Liu (GOV)
Research interests: survey research, behavioral research, international security, East Asian security

Carlos Lopez (CRP)
Research interests: intergenerational mobility in global south, informal urbanization, slum upgrading, long-term impacts of slum upgrading on beneficiaries living standards.

Yi Lu (PSYCH)
Research interests: aging, age-related differences in self-concepts, social relations, and decision-making outcomes

Nicole Lum (SOC)
Research interests: family, gender, inequality, demography

Mandy Luo (COMM)
Research interests: media psychology, health communication

Xinyu Ma (AEM)
Research interests: agricultural economics, food consumer behavior

Calen MacDonald (PSYCH)
Research interests: language evolution, language and interaction, philosophy of language, gender studies, queer theory

Eliza Mahoney (SOC)
Research interests: gender, sexuality, reproduction, health, science and technology studies

Rebecca Mann (PUBPOL)
Research interests: inequality, labor economics, health economics

Kathleen McCormick (PSYCH)
Research interests: puberty & mental health, menopause & mental health

Alicia Marquez (PUBPOL)
Research interests: health policy, environmental policy

Rifqi Maulana (CRP)
Research interests: education, spatial demography, development economics

Sumedha Minocha (AEM)
Research interests: development, nutrition, agriculture, social protection programs

Shashank Mishra (PUBPOL)
Research interests: Urbanisation, migration, skilling, digital divide, data science

Anton Moore (PUBPOL)
Research interests: economics of crime, inequality, labor, education

Elijah Moreno (PUBPOL)
Research interests: indigenous economic development and demography, public economics, labor economics, economic history

Sandra Mosqueira Caminada (PUBPOL)
Research interests: migration, Latin America, disabilities, education

Duke Mwedzi (GDEV)
Research interests: education, human capital, Southern Africa

Deborah Nakkungu (PUBPOL)
Research interests: development economics and health economics

Hamidullah Nikzad (DNRE)
Research interests: population vulnerability, climate change, conflict, and food security

Yuma Noritomo (AEM)
Research interests: development economics

Shariwa Oke (NUTR)
Research interests: user-centered digital intervention design, health behavior change and messaging, early childhood education

Giulia Olivero (PUBPOL)
Research interests: Family, immigration, education

Kira Olsen-Medina (SOC)
Research interests: immigration policy

Alvaro Padilla Pozo (SOC)
Research interests: health inequality, urban sociology, human mobility, climate change

Roberta Pennell (DNRE)
Research interests: human dimensions of small-scale fisheries, power dynamics in governance, pro-environmental behavior

Leonardo Peñaloza-Pacheco (ECON)
Research interests: labor economics, economics of migration, international economics, development economics

Peter Polhill (ILR)
Research interests: labor, entrepreneurship, migration, and policy

Maya Porath (CRP)
Research interests: housing, community development, property

Bharathy Premachandra (COMM)
Research interests: inequality, education, health, interventions, meta-science

Cody Reed (SOC)
Research interests: social stratification

Beatrys Rodrigues (COMM)
Research interests: technology and gender, worker and creator-led collaborative paths against harassment and labor inequality mediated by digital platforms

Kristina Romanenkov (ANTRHO)
Research interests: housing renovation, urban transformation, family structure.

Jillian Royal (PUBPOL)
Research interests: race/ethnicity, public policy

Takshil Sachdev (ECON)
Research interests: labor, development, migration

Katharine Sadowski (PUBPOL)
Research interests: social policy

Sam Safford (SOC)
Research interests: gender, measurement, health, public policy, quantitative and mixed methods

Nathália Santos (SOC)
Research interests: urban neighborhoods, community dynamics and computational social science

Yongxin Shang (PUBPOL)
Research interests: family demography, health inequalities, population aging

Jenna Shelton (PUBPOL)
Research interests: child welfare & family policy, child poverty, housing and homelessness, juvenile justice, education

Chloe Smith (PUBPOL)
Research interests: health economics, economics of crime, drug policy

I-An Su (PSYCH)
Research interests: child witnesses, forensic interviewing, false memory, capital punishment, psychology and law

Laura Sullivan (PUBPOL)
Research interests: poverty and inequality, spatial demography, urban policy.

David Tompkins (PSYCH)
Research interests: developmental psychology research

Cora Touchstone (ECON)
Research interests: social networks, labor, inequality

Andrea Urbina (CRP)
Research interests: housing policy, urban planning, governance in the Global South

Jocelyn Vega-Robledo (SOC)
Research interests: sociology of education, immigration, gender, labor

Ruiyao Wang (COMM)
Research interests: intercultural and interpersonal communication among women and migrants, particularly East Asian and Asian female migrants

Shidi Wang
Research interests: gender, family, marriage, digital society

Weizhe Wang (ECON)
Research interests: Macro, Trade, Household, Innovation, Growth

Xinwin Wang (SOC)
Research interests: mobility, migration, computational social science

Ziyi Wang (ECON)
Research interests: population studies, immigration, and labor economics

Meredith Welch (PUBPOL)
Research interests: poverty, social policy, education, the labor market

Savannah Whitehead (MPA)
Research interests: demography, race, income, lifecycle, cohort tracking, geospatial data analysis

Tess Wild (PSYCH)
Research interests: lifespan development, social relationships, health

Rujia Xie (NUTR)
Research interests: food environments, health equity, food systems

He Xu (SOC)
Research interests: family, marriage, social stratification, intergenerational mobility

Yaling Xu (ECON)
Research interests: labor economics, health economics, higher education, gender gap

Vivian Zhang (PSYCH)
Research interests: parent-child turn-taking interactions across monolingual, multilingual, typically developing, ASD and DS groups.

Haowen Zheng (SOC)
Research interests: stratification, demography

Zhipeng Zhou (SOC)
Research interests: social stratification and mobility, organization, occupation, and work

External Affiliates

Chris Hess
Assistant Professor
Sociology & Criminal Justice
Kennesaw State University
Research interests: residential segregation, neighborhoods, geography of place-based inequalities

Serap Kavas
Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Research interests: family demography, developmental idealism, gender, & migration

Renee Luthra
Professor of Sociology
University of Essex
Research interests: Causes and consequences of international migration on education and labour market outcomes, family dynamics and parenting practices, and mental health and wellbeing.

Luca Maria Pesando
Associate Professor of Social Research and Public Policy
New York University – Abu Dhabi
Research interests: Demography, family, poverty, inequality, education, social stratification, child wellbeing, technology, diffusion, big data, methods, policy evaluation, public policy

Linda Zhao
Neubauer Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Chicago
Research interests: Social networks, intergroup dynamics, immigrant integration, policing, race and ethnicity, demography, neighborhoods, computational social science

Affiliate Spotlight

John Zinda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University and a faculty affiliate in Cornell’s East Asia Program, the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, and the Cornell Population Center. He studies how people and environments make and remake each other. His research and teaching examine how state policy initiatives come into landscapes and converge with the individual and collective practices of people in those landscapes.

In the United States, he studies how people in flood-affected communities confront risk. Working with collaborators in community organizations and local and state governments, his team is examining how responses to flood risk emerge at the intersection of social disparities, collective action, and policy interventions.  In China, he has worked with ecologists, geographers, anthropologists, and agricultural scientists to understand how people and landscapes respond to efforts at rural development, reforestation, and biodiversity conservation.

Some recent publications include:

How Homeownership, Race, and Social Connections Influence Flood Preparedness Measures: Evidence from 2 Small U.S. CitiesEnvironmental Sociology.
Flood Risk Perception and Responses among Urban Residents in the Northeastern United StatesInternational Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
Unpacking Authoritarian Environmental Governance: Gauging Authoritarian Elaboration in China and BeyondSociology of Development.