The APPAM Policy Council approved creation of this award on March 30, 2007. There is no external funding for this award and the recipients do not receive cash prizes.
APPAM seeks to reward and encourage excellence in research by new/emerging scholars as represented among the poster sessions delivered at the Annual Fall Research Conference.
Up to three poster presentations will be recognized each year through this award. The presenters of the winning poster sessions each will receive a custom prize ribbon created specifically for the award.
All poster sessions presented at the Fall Research Conference will be eligible for the award provided that they are presented in person during one of the three poster sessions.
A selection committee of three people will be appointed by APPAM to review the posters on display at the conference, attend the poster presentations, and, at the conclusion of the presentations, select up to three posters to receive the award, one per poster session.
Previous Recipients
2018 Fall Research Conference
Thursday, November 8
First place: Making Intergroup Contact 'Work': Reducing Bias through Effective Workplace Diversity Programs,Sean Darling-Hammond, University of California, Berkeley
Second place: California's Proposition 47: How Did This Reduction in Penalties for Lower-level Drug and Porperyt Offenses Affect Incarceration Levels and Recidivism Rates, Mia Bird, Public Policy Institute of California
Third place: The Economic Effects of Facebook, Roberto Mosquera, Texas A&M University
Saturday, November 10
First place: Baby's Gone: The Effects of Increased Sentencing Severity on Fertility and Family Formation, Siobhan M. O'Keefe, University of California, Davis
Second place: SNAP Benefit Amount, Negative Net Income, and Food Insecurity: A Regression Kink Analysis , Sabrina Young, University of Illinois, Chicago
Third place: The Impact of NCLB Waivers on Student Achievement Gaps, Bryant Gregory Wagner, New York University
2017 Fall Research Conference
Thursday, November 2
First place: Does Initiating Tobacco Use with Flavored Products Predict Current Smoking Status? An Examination by Race, Gender, and Sexual Identity, Shannon Lea Watkins and Wendy Max, University of California, San Francisco
Second place: Measuring Risk and Variation in Household Social Determinants of Health, Michele Abbott, Gery Ryan, RAND Corporation; Luther Brewster, Florida International University
Third place: Providing In-Kind Food Transfers to Low-Income Households in Urban India: Results from an Evaluation of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Chhattisgarh, Raghav Puri, Syracuse University
Friday, November 3
First place: Gender Discrimination in the Decision to Convict , Mark Hoekstra and Brittany Street, Texas A&M University
Second place: Race and Reporting: A New Approach to Estimating the Effect of Student-Teacher Race Congruence on Disciplinary Infractions , David Woo and Erica Harbatkin, Vanderbilt University
Third place: Modern Disintegration: The Effects of School Resegregation on Neighborhood Property Values and Foreclosure Rates , Rayven Plaza, Columbia University
Saturday, November 4
First place: Is Socioeconomic Status a Barrier to Nonresidential Father’s Involvement with Their Children? Evidence from Survey and Administrative Data, Angela Maria Guarin Aristizabal, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Second place: Real-World Challenges to Randomization and Their Solutions , Kenya Heard, J-PAL North America, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Third place: Ready for Kindergarten? School Readiness Measurement and Outcomes , Kirby A. Chow, SRI International
2016 Fall Research Conference
Thursday, November 3
First place: Time Use of Teleworkers: Does Workplace Flexibility Decrease Work-Life Conflict?, Christine Coyer and Rachel Dunifon, Cornell University
Second place: Returning to Schooling: Educational Production Following Local Labor Market Downturns, Andrew Foote, U.S. Census Bureau and Michel Grosz, University of California, Davis
Third place: Linking Records Across Administrative Datasets: Can GIS Geocoding Help?, Randall Juras, Abt Associates
Friday, November 4
First place: Investigating the Impact of Unemployment on Arrests for Individuals at the Margin: Evidence from Ex-Offenders Seeking Work in New York State, Garima Siwach, University at Albany - SUNY
Second place: The Relationship Between State-Level Policies Restricting Abortion and State-Level Abortion Rates, Danielle Atkins, University of Tennessee, Vicky Wilkins, American University, and Daniel L. Fay, Florida State University
Third place: Revenue Complexity Vs. Revenue Diversification: A New Empirical Approach to an Old Debate, Cole Rakow, University of Kentucky
Saturday, November 5
First place: Effects of Losing Public Health Insurance on Healthcare Access, Utilization and Health Outcomes: Evidence from the TennCare Disenrollment , D. Sebastian Tello-Trillo, University of Virginia
Second place: Prisoner Social Networks: Patterns Observed in Longitudinal Visitation Data, Audrey Hickert, University at Albany - SUNY
Third place: Faith, Poverty, and Place: Congregations and the Geography of Poverty in the US, Jessica Gillooly, University of Michigan and Scott Allard, University of Washington
2015 Fall Research Conference
Thursday, November 12
First place: Obesity, Carbonated Soft Drink Prices and Water Shortages, Patricia Ritter, University of Chicago
Second place: Access to Early Childhood Services for Young Children Experiencing Homelessness, Staci M. Perlman and Sara H. Shaw, University of Delaware
Third place: Sex, Drug, and Births: How Changes in International Provision of Contraceptive Supply Affect Fertility in Zambia, Jennifer Shen, Duke University
Friday, November 13
First place: Sampling the Extreme Poor: Notes from a Systematic and Venue-Based Study , Elizabeth Talbert, Kathryn Edin, Andrew Cherlin and Robert Francis, Johns Hopkins University
Second place: Desa Siaga: An Evaluation of an Innovative Program to Promote Safe Motherhood in Indonesia, Amy R. Finnegan, Duke University
Third place: Multi-Year Analysis of Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program Outcomes in Missouri, Tori Rockwell, Colleen Heflin, Jake Cronin and Ashley Price, University of Missouri
Saturday, November 14
First place: The Effect of Subway Access on School Choice, Luis Andres Herskovic and Sebastian Gallegos, University of Chicago
Second place: Accountability, Schools and Student Discipline: Accountability and Its Influence on High-School Suspension Rates, E. Christine Baker-Smith, New York University
Third place: The Impact of Adjunct Instructors on College Student Academic and Labor Market Outcome, Xiaotao Ran and Di Xu, Columbia University
2014 Fall Research Conference
Thursday, November 6
First place: Obtaining Experimental Evidence Regarding the Effectiveness of Interventions Intended to Support the Success of Freshman STEM Undergraduates, Marvin Mandell, Lisa Dickson, Dave Marcotte, and Kenneth Maton, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Second place: Temporary Housing or Permanent Homes? Determinants of Tenure Among Public Housing Residents, Prentiss Dantzler, Rutgers University
Third place: Family Formation and Urban Flight, Marvin Ward, Ginger Moored, and Lori Metcalf, DC Office of Revenue Analysis
Honorable Mentions
Color and the Classroom: Publicolor as a Case Study for the Impacts of Design on Engagement and Learning, Kate Schwartz and Elise Cappella, New York University
Racial Demographic Change and Municipal Lawmaking: A Test of Racial Threat Theory in Estimating the Risk of the Enactment of a Juvenile Curfew Ordinance, Portia Allen-Kyle, Rutgers University
The Outsourcing of Federal Regulation: The Case of Food Safety, Jocelyn Johnston and Rebecca Yurman, American University
Friday, November 7
First place: Matching Techniques, Data Characteristics, and Program Access: Evidence from Direct Certification for School Meal Benefits, Quinn Moore, Andrew Gothro, Kevin Conway, and Brandon Kyler, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Second place: Getting inside the Black Box: Using Behavioral Insights to Market a Voluntary Government Program, Randall Juras and Jacob Alex Klerman, Abt Associates, Inc.
Third place: Parent's Long-Term Care Needs and Economic Status of Adult Children, Kanika Arora, Syracuse University
Saturday, November 8
First place: Should Students Earn an Associate Degree Before Transferring to a Four-Year Institution, Elizabeth Kopko, Columbia University
Second place: Do Visible Tattoos Affect Recidivism? Kaitlyn Harger, West Virginia University
Third place: Cost-Effectiveness in the Context of Budget Restoration: Implementing the Local Control Funding Formula in the Los Angeles Unified School District, David S. Knight, University of Southern California
2013 Fall Research Conference
Thursday, November 7
First place: Remedial Screening Tests, High School Grades, and College Success by Zun Tang and Sarah Truelsch, City University of New York
Second place: Improving the Measurement of STEM Gender and Racial Gaps in the Workforce by Yu-chieh Hsu, Janna E. Johnson, and Javaeria Qureshi, University of Illinois at Chicago
Third place: Is Facebook Making Us Greener? The Roles of Social Connectedness and Web Use in Shaping Conservation Priorities by Evan E. Johnson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Friday, November 8
First place: The Bracero Program and Effects on Human Capital Investments in Mexico, 1942 - 1964 by Edward Lawrence Kosack, University of Colorado Boulder
Second place: Improving Energy Codes by Accounting for Social Damages by Grant D. Jacobsen, University of Oregon
Third place: Cliff Effects in Massachusetts Subsidized Child Care by Graham W. Wright, Brandeis University
Saturday, November 9
First place: Are Increases in Maternal Education Positiver for Everyone? Testing Moderators of the Association Between Increases in Maternal Education and Children's Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes by Jessica F. Harding and Pamela Morris, New York University
Second place: State Firearm Laws and Firearm Ownership and Safety Practices Among Families of Preschool Age Children by Kate C. Prickett, University of Texas at Austin; Alexa Martin-Storey, Universite de Sherbrooke; and Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin
Third place: Effect of Facility Security Level on Prison Misconduct: A Regression Discontinuity Design by Sarah Tahamont, University of California, Berkeley