Melissa Sands is a social scientist whose research interests include the consequences of context on political and civic behavior. Her research shows that who and what we encounter as we go about our everyday lives affects the policies we support and how we interact with government. Specializing in causal inference, field experiments, and spatial and geographic analysis, Professor Sands develops new approaches to the study of social and physical context.

Prior to joining Cornell, Professor Sands was an Assistant Professor of Politics and Data Science at the London School of Economics and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Merced. She received her PhD from the Harvard University Department of Government, and earned an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Sands is a member of Evidence in Governance in Politics (EGAP).