TEXAS POLICY LAB - Key Persons
Antonio Merlo, PhD is the Dean of NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science, and former Dean of the Rice University School of Social Sciences.
Dr. Merlo's areas of expertise are political economy, public economics, empirical microeconomics and bargaining theory and applications. He has published numerous articles in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy and the Review of Economic Studies. He is an elected fellow of the Econometric Society. He also serves as a research fellow of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research and as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Dr. Merlo earned a bachelor's degree in economics and social sciences from Italy's Bocconi University and a PhD in economics from New York University. Before joining Rice University in 2014, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Minnesota and New York University and has held numerous visiting positions throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Job Titles:
- Director of Government Partnerships
Dhivya Parasuraman is a Data Analyst at the Texas Policy Lab where she works on various projects related to early childhood. She enjoys delving into complex data sets and producing insightful, data-driven strategic recommendations. Her Master's from the University of Houston is focused on Data Analytics and she has experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, statistical analysis, big data analysis using cloud technologies, and time series analysis. Prior to joining the TPL, she worked as a Data Analyst at the University of Houston where she analyzed quantitative and qualitative data to increase student engagement in using Open Educational Resources.
Dhivya also holds a BS in Computer Science from Anna University, India. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking, and biking.
Job Titles:
- Lead Researcher
- Research Scientist - Criminal and Juvenile Justice Lead
Diego Amador is the lead researcher in all of the criminal and youth justice projects at the Texas Policy Lab. He has a doctoral degree in Economics and research experience on several topics, including criminal justice, human capital formation, and sexual and reproductive health. Through research and teaching, he has developed an expertise in a wide range of quantitative methods for causal analysis, which he applies to the design and implementation of rigorous evaluations of social programs and interventions in order to help inform policymaking in Texas.
Dr. Amador received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015. Before joining the Texas Policy Lab, Dr. Amador was an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. He is and Adjunct Professor in the Masters in Social Policy Evaluation at Rice University, where he has taught courses in Quantitative Methods and Criminal Justice.
Dr. Thomas Baranowski is the Professor of Pediatrics and Nutrition, and a Senior Member of the Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity group at the USDA Children's Nutrition Research Center, at Baylor College of Medicine. Over the past decades, Dr. Baranowski's research has focused on understanding children's dietary and physical activity behaviors and evaluating programs to help change these behaviors, primarily to help prevent obesity. Dr. Baranowski is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed articles, more than 30 book chapters, and a textbook on evaluation methods for health promotion programs.
Dr. Baranowski received his undergraduate degree in Politics from Princeton University and his masters and doctorate in Social Psychology from the University of Kansas. He was the founding president of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Economics at Rice University
Prof. Cunha earned his Ph.D. in Economics from University of Chicago and an M.Sc. from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ervin Kenneth Zingler Professor of Economics at Rice University, Prof. Flávio Cunha's expertise is in labor economics with special emphasis on human capital formation. He previously was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. His current research focuses on the causes and consequences of inequality and poverty relative to fluctuations in the labor market. His on-going research project, the Philadelphia Human Development Study, aims to understand how parental expectations about the returns on investing in children affect actual investment decisions.
Job Titles:
- Research Specialist
- Research Specialist at the Texas Policy Lab for Rice University
Gayle Samford is a Research Specialist at the Texas Policy Lab for Rice University. Her research centers around Early Childhood interventions. Before joining the team at Rice, she was an Early Childhood teacher in Birdville and Conroe ISD. She is also a summer science teacher at Wonders of The Woodlands. Her passion is creative hand on learning for children. On her off time you will find her with family, friends and animals on the beach with a book!
Job Titles:
- Graduate Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Research Professor
Kenneth Wolpin, Ph.D., is the Distinguished Research Professor and Lay Family Professor of Economics at Rice University. His contributions span labor economics, economic demography, development economics, health economics and empirical methodology. His expertise lies in the development and application of tools for estimating discrete choice dynamic programming models and the critical interplay between economic theory, data and econometrics. He has authored or co-authored over 60 professional papers on labor economics, economic demography, development economics, health economics and empirical methodology.
Prof. Wolpin served previously as the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania; chair of the Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania; and held faculty appointments at New York University, the University of Minnesota, Ohio State University and Yale University. He has served as the Principal Investigator of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience.
Prof. Wolpin earned his doctorate from The Graduate School of The City University of New York.
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Research Assistant
Liliana Nikolova is an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Texas Policy Lab where she works on projects gathering qualitative data and conducting qualitative analysis. She is currently studying Mathematical Economic Analysis at Rice University with minors in Financial Computation and Environmental Studies. She is passionate about understanding how quantitative reasoning and analysis can be applied to formulating effective public and financial policy. Before joining TPL, Lili worked as a data analyst assistant at Baylor College of Medicine, analyzing life-span trends of Drosophila flies using statistical software.
Job Titles:
- Information Technology Manager
- Senior Information Technology Administrator
Madhav Chandra is the Senior Information Technology Administrator at the Texas Policy Lab. Mr. Chandra has more than 10 years of experience in information technology and has previously worked at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Texas Wesleyan University. At the Texas Wesleyan University, Mr. Chandra was the Cloud Engineer where he led a public cloud migration project which enabled the University to become more agile resulting in a significant reduction in capital and operating costs. Mr. Chandra's most recent work at Texas Wesleyan saved the University nearly $1 million by migrating the on-premise backup infrastructure to Microsoft Azure.
Mr. Chandra earned his Master in Business Administration from Texas Wesleyan University and a bachelor from Bhilai Institute of Technology, India, with a focus on Information Technology.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Psychological Sciences at Rice University
Margaret Beier is a Professor of Psychological Sciences at Rice University. Her research interests focus on predicting success for adults in organizations and educational settings. This includes examining psychological constructs like cognitive abilities, attitudes, personality, motivation, domain-specific knowledge, and individual differences in gender and age. Dr. Beier directs the Adult Skills and Knowledge Lab at Rice and teaches undergraduate courses in Research Methods, Psychological Testing, and Personality Theory and Research, and an array of graduate seminars including Personnel Psychology. Dr. Beier is the Master of McMurtry College at Rice University.
Job Titles:
- Data Scientist
- Health Data Analyst
Megan Rafferty is a Health Data Analyst at the Texas Policy Lab, where she works on various projects related to public health and healthcare. She has experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods, evidence synthesis, statistical analysis, and predictive modeling. Prior to joining the TPL, she held research positions at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where her work focused on using neuroimaging, noninvasive neurostimulation, and computational modeling to advance the understanding of neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control and their impairments in serious mental illness.
Megan is currently pursuing an MPH in Biostatistics from the UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research Operations and Compliance
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Teaching Professor
Dr. Linder is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in management, policy and community health and Director of the Institute for Health Policy at the University of Texas Health Science Center's Houston School of Public Health. Dr. Linder also serves as the Associate Director of the Health Policy Institute at Texas Medical Center. His research interests include projects in health disparities, needs assessment, cumulative health risks and the interface between health risks and environmental sustainability.
Dr. Linder earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Iowa.
Xun Tang, Ph.D., is the Henry S. Fox Sr. Professor of Economics at Rice University. His research interest spans econometric methods and empirical studies of market mechanisms. Prof. Tang has published academic articles on a variety of topics, including the robust identification of micro-econometric models (e.g., qualitative responses, treatment effects, games with incomplete information), the estimation of social network models under missing or noisy data, and the empirical analyses of mechanisms such as standard and non-standard auctions and bilateral bargaining. His expertise lies in applying sound econometric tools to analyze game-theoretic or behavioral models that bridge economic theory and field data.
Prof. Tang served previously as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania, and a principal economist at AMAZON.com. He has been a principal investigator under several National Science Foundation grants. Prof. Tang earned his doctorate from the Economics Department at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). He also holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Beijing Foreign Studies University (China). He was born and raised in Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Job Titles:
- Research Coordinator
- Research Coordinator With the
Yadira Castro is a research coordinator with the Texas Policy Lab where she coordinates and administers research studies and associated activities. Before joining the Texas Policy Lab, Yadira Castro worked as a Family Liaison within the Family and Community Engagement Department at Alief ISD. Through her experience and career in education, she has worked in early childhood development, and social and family support services including effective parenting techniques for diverse cultures and economic backgrounds.
Mrs. Castro is a strong education professional with a Bachelor's degree focused in English Language and Literature General, from the National Pedagogical University of Francisco Morazan.