OPENRESEARCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign and a Research Affiliate of the Poverty Lab at the University of Chicago
Alex Bartik is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Research Affiliate of the Poverty Lab at the University of Chicago. Bartik's research and teaching interests include labor economics, public finance, and applied econometrics. He received his PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2017.
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategy & Operations
Aristia Kinis directs strategy and operations at OpenResearch. She has worked across the last 15 years in research and academic nonprofit organizations, and she believes profoundly in the transformative social impact potential of nonprofits. Aristia holds a BS in foreign service from Georgetown University and recently completed her MBA. She thrives within the spaces of ambiguity and competing priorities inherent in an entrepreneurial nonprofit environment and feels so fortunate to spend her days collaborating with her OpenResearch colleagues.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy ( by Courtesy ) at the University of Michigan
Alford A. Young, Jr. is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy (by courtesy) at the University of Michigan. His research focuses primarily on low-income African American men and how they construct understandings of social reality, including social mobility, work opportunities, and successful family life.
David B. Grusky is Barbara Kimball Browning Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Sociology, Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, and coeditor of Pathways Magazine.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Director of Policy & Research at Demos
Connie Razza serves as Director of Policy & Research at Demos. Before coming to Demos, Connie worked at the Center for Popular Democracy as Director of Campaigns and Director of Strategic Research. Prior to CPD, Connie did strategic research for community organizations and labor unions. Connie holds a BA from Georgetown University and an MA and PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Barbara Kimball Browning Professor
David B. Grusky is Barbara Kimball Browning Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Sociology, Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, and coeditor of Pathways Magazine.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley
David Broockman is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research brings field experiments to new domains in order to understand how individuals decide. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2015.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center
Edwin G. Dolan holds a PhD in economics from Yale University. He has taught in the United States at Dartmouth College, the University of Chicago, George Mason University and Gettysburg College. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and lives in Northwest Lower Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Professor of Behavioral Science and Public Policy at Princeton University
Eldar Shafir is the Class of 1987 Professor of Behavioral Science and Public Policy at Princeton University, the Inaugural Director of Princeton's Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy, and co-founder and scientific director at ideas42, a social science R&D lab. He studies decision-making, cognitive science, and behavioral economics. His recent research has focused on decision-making in contexts of poverty and on the application of behavioral research to policy.
Job Titles:
- Research Director
- Research Director for the Basic Income Study
Elizabeth Rhodes is the research director for the Basic Income Study at OpenResearch. She completed a joint PhD in social work and political science at the University of Michigan in 2016, where her research focused on health and education provision in informal settlements, workforce development, and poverty prevention and alleviation strategies. Elizabeth also holds an MSW from Michigan and a BA in government and economics from Georgetown.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Toronto
- Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto
Eva Vivalt is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Vivalt received a PhD in Economics and MA in Mathematics from UC Berkeley and has research interests in applied econometrics, development economics, and public policy.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine
Greg Duncan is Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. Duncan's recent work has focused on understanding the role of school-entry skills and behaviors on later attainment and the effects of family income on children's life chances.
Job Titles:
- Senior Qualitative Researcher
Jessica Wiederspan is a senior qualitative researcher at OpenResearch. Dr. Wiederspan completed a Joint PhD in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan, where her work focused on how families in the U.S. make ends meet economically and understand their financial hardships. She also holds an MSW from Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Associate for the Basic Income Project
- Data Associate
Joshua Lin (he/him) is a data associate for the Basic Income Project. Before joining OpenResearch, he worked as a regulatory analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission in telecommunications and has done work on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the nonprofit space. He holds an MS in information and data science from UC Berkeley, and while there, he worked as a data analyst at Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors, helping push for the expansion of solar energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. He also holds a BA in Asian studies and BS in environmental sciences from UC Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Research & Insights Manager
Karina is a research and insights manager at OpenResearch. She has worked as a social science researcher at the University of Michigan for the last seven years on a wide range of topics ranging from poverty and crime, to transportation and social policy. Most recently, she has worked on research developing an index to measure transportation insecurity and explore its prevalence, causes, and consequences. Karina holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Lawrence F. Katz is the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Director of Poverty Solutions at the University
Director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, School of Social Work and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
H. Luke Shaefer, Ph.D. is the director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, an interdisciplinary, university-level initiative that seeks to inform, identify, and test innovative strategies to prevent and alleviate poverty. He is an associate professor at the University of Michigan, School of Social Work and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Director of Economic Policy Studies and John G. Searle Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
Michael R. Strain is Director of Economic Policy Studies and John G. Searle Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His research interests include labor economics, public finance, and social policy. He is also a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Co - Chair of the Economic Security Project
Natalie is the co-chair of the Economic Security Project, a two year fund to support exploration and experimentation of unconditional cash transfers, and an advisor to the The Aspen Institute Future of Work Initiative. Previously, Natalie served as digital director for President Obama's Organizing for America (OFA) and the Democratic National Committee.
Patrick Krause leads data management for the Basic Income Project. Prior to joining OpenResearch, Patrick worked in the fields of development, construction, and winemaking. Most recently, he worked in market research, developing methods to quantify narratives in online conversations. Patrick holds a MS in international and development economics from the University of San Francisco and a BA in economics and political science from Bucknell University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Omidyar Network Entrepreneur - in - Residence at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program ( FSP )
Rachel Schneider is the Omidyar Network Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (FSP), and co-author of The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty. The Financial Diaries connects the findings of the ground-breaking U.S. Financial Diaries research project, which collected highly detailed data about how 235 households save, spend, borrow and plan over the course of a year, with the broad trends upending the economic lives of American families.
Sam Altman is the chair of OpenResearch and the CEO of OpenAI. He was previously President of Y Combinator. He was cofounder and CEO of Loopt, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2005 and acquired by Green Dot in 2012. At Green Dot, he was the CTO and is now on the Board of Directors. Sam also founded Hydrazine Capital. He studied computer science at Stanford and while there worked in the AI lab.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Daniel & Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Sandra Susan Smith is Daniel & Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice, Faculty Chair of the Program on Criminal Justice, Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute, at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Her research lies at the intersection of urban poverty, race and ethnicity, joblessness, social capital activation and mobilization.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan
Sarah Miller is an Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Dr. Miller received her PhD in economics from the University of Illinois. Her research explores the intersection of physical and financial health and the long-term health and human capital effects of public policy interventions.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management
Tavneet Suri is an Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her expertise is as a development economist, specialized in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tavneet's work cuts across multiple sectors related to international development, such as digital financial services for the poor, agriculture, and governance.
Job Titles:
- Strategy and Operations Manager
Tess Cotter is a strategy and operations manager at OpenResearch. She previously worked as a strategy consultant at Publicis Sapient and taught product management at iXperience. Tess is currently pursuing an MS in data science from UC Berkeley and holds a BS in engineering psychology and economics from Tufts University. While there, she conducted research in the Spatial Cognition Lab and worked as a social enterprise consultant with 180 Degrees Consulting.
Job Titles:
- Qualitative Researcher
- Researcher for the Basic Income Study
Yesenia R. Vargas is a qualitative researcher for the Basic Income Study at OpenResearch. Prior to joining OpenResearch, she worked as a qualitative researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she focused on racialized disparities in reproductive healthcare, medicalization, and parent/family wellness. While there, she conducted research for the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy on racial wealth gaps in Chicago and worked as a research consultant for various research non-profits and firms including the Surgo Foundation and Keisler Social and Behavioral Research. She holds a BA in American studies with a minor in sociology from Wellesley College, an MEd. from Boston College and an MA in sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.