2021 APPAM Mentors

Back by popular demand, the Mentor Matching Program connects a diverse group of policy academics and researchers with student members at our Fall 2021 Research Conference. Participants in the 2021 program are invited to connect virtually during the conference. We would like to thank our members who have volunteered to serve as a mentor for 2021. You may review the mentor biographies, by program area, below.

If you are an APPAM student member who is interested in receiving mentoring, you will need to review the list of mentors below and complete the mentor matching program application. You will be asked to provide your top four choices for mentors as well as area of interest and type of mentoring interested in. Matches are made on a rolling basis but won't be announced until early October. If a mentor is marked as *MATCHED*, do not include them in your top four choices. In the event that one of your top four choices is not available, matching will be based on research interest and type of mentoring sought.

Interested in getting involved as a mentor? Follow us on twitter and check APPAM.org next summer for details on the 2021 Mentor Matching Program.

For more information, check the Mentor Matching Program page or contact Ryan Martz at rmartz@appam.org with any questions or concerns. Please note: the deadline to fill out a mentee application is October 1, 2021 and announcements will be made in early October.

Mentor Policy Areas

 

Business & Public Policy     Economics     Education       Family & Child Policy

Government & Politics     Health Policy     Housing & Community Development     Methodology/Analysis

Natural Resource, Environment, & Energy     Population & Migration     Poverty & Income Policy

Public & Nonprofit Management    

 

 

Mentor Biographies by Policy Area

(Alphabetical by Last Name)

 

Business & Public Policy

Economics
 

Gustavo Bobonis, Professor, University of Toronto

Type of Mentoring: Research Guidance, General Professional Development, Job Document Review, Fellowship Application Assistance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

I am a Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Development in the Department of Economics and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. I am a development economist; my research focuses broadly on the economic, social, and political determinants of human development in low and middle income countries as well as disadvantaged populations in North America.

Dr. Nicardo McInnis, California State University Northridge

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Dr. McInnis' research centers on the low-income population. He utilizes quasi-experimental methods to study the effects of income disparities and how safety net programs can be used to close those gaps. His current research mainly considers health outcomes, but his goal is to focus more broadly on child and human capital development and how they influence later life outcomes in the labor market such as employment and earnings.

Analisa Packham, Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

I am an applied microeconomist economist. My research is policy-motivated and spans health economics, crime economics, education economics, and economics of the family. I have published primarily on the causal impact of Title X clinic access on contraception use and childbearing and the effects of nutritional assistance benefit receipt on consumption, crime, and educational attainment. More generally, I am interested in how health and education policies affect behavior. As a first-gen college student, I enjoy helping up-and-coming PhD students and making some of the more hidden parts of academia a little more transparent.

Alexa Prettyman, Senior Statistician & Research Supervisor, University of California Los Angeles

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

I am a senior statistician and research supervisor with the California Center for Population Research. I work with Dr. Martha Bailey on a host of research projects in economic history, labor economics, and demography. My research interests are broadly related to labor and public economics with a focus on child welfare and education policy. I received my PhD in economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in August 2021. My job market paper estimated the effect of extending foster care services beyond age 18 to age 21 on the transition to adulthood for foster youth.

Feel free to check out my website to learn even more about me. https://www.alexaprettyman.com/

I am volunteering this year to offer job market advice, hints, and tips. I was on the market last year, so the process is still fresh in my mind. I can also provide some guidance related to finishing your dissertation and doing research.

Dr. CarlyWill Sloan, Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate University

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economic Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. I received my Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and my BA from Rhodes College in economics. My research interests include labor economics, the economics of crime, and the economics of discrimination. Currently, I am focused on understanding the decision-making of prosecutors and police officers.

Jacob Vigdor, Professor of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington

Type of Mentoring: Research Guidance, General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

I am an economist by training with 22 years of experience as a public policy faculty member, at Duke and the University of Washington. I've published in the areas of education policy, immigration policy, housing policy, and served as director of the Seattle Minimum Wage Study. I served as director of a Ph.D. program for four years and as a member of a campus-wide promotion and tenure committee for three. I am currently serving as UW's faculty legislative representative which provides me some insight into the nitty-gritty details of the policy making process.

Education

 

Paul Bruno, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, Research Guidance, General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Either

I'm new (starting my second year) as an assistant professor of education policy, organization, and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I recently finished my MA/PhD at USC after teaching middle school science. I study K-12 personnel and finance issues and teach courses in school finance and quantitative policy analysis. I'm happy to help with whatever would be useful, including questions about navigating conferences and the academic job market (since I did that myself recently).

Rajeev Darolia, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics, University of Kentucky

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Rajeev Darolia holds the Wendell H. Ford Professorship of Public Policy and is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Kentucky. He serves as Associate Director of Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, where he is also Director of Graduate Studies for the PhD program. Dr. Darolia is a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, a Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, a Research Affiliate at the UK Center for Poverty Research, and a 2018 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. He serves as an Associate Editor for Education Finance & Policy, is past Associate Editor of the Review of Higher Education and is on the editorial boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Journal of Higher Education, and Educational Researcher. Dr. Darolia’s current research interests include questions about how public policy affects economic mobility and financial security, especially related to education policy.

Matt Giani, Director of Research and Data Science and Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Texas at Austin

Type of Mentoring: Overall Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Matt Giani is the Director of Research and Data Science for the Office of Strategy and Policy and an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. He oversees the research and evaluation activities for OnRamps and Texas OnCourse. His research focuses on policies, practices, and interventions that promote social mobility and reduce socioeconomic stratification in K12 and higher education, particularly those that promote college access and success of low-income students. His methodological expertise is quantitative methods, including experimental and quasi-experimental techniques used to support causal inference in educational research. Giani has extensive experience using both national and statewide longitudinal data including the Education Research Center (ERC) at the University of Texas at Austin.

Sarah Guthery, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, Commerce

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Sarah Guthery is an assistant professor in Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M University Commerce. Her research focuses on the influence of educational policy on the educator labor market in Texas. She primarily investigates the production, retention and promotion of teachers and principals in Texas. Using Texas data, her work has been published in journals including Educational Policy, UT Educational Policy Review and AERA Open. She has presented her work nationally and internationally at conferences including AEFP, AERA and APPAM. Her research and expertise have been highlighted by Education Week, Politico and Principal Magazine. She graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with an emphasis in educational quantitative research and has attended the methodological and theoretical training sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences at the University of Michigan on “Using Student Test Scores to Measure Teacher Performance”. She currently serves as a member of the Educator Preparation Data Workgroup and the Indicator Three data advisory group for the Texas State Board of Educator Certification.

Dr. Brian Holzman, Research Scientist, Rice University

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance, Fellowship Application Assistance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Dr. Brian Holzman is a research scientist at the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) at Rice University. At HERC, he leads research projects that study and evaluate interventions, policies, and practices in Houston-area school districts. Dr. Holzman’s research examines the pathway from middle school to and through college. His research pays particular attention to educational equity and often focuses on structural and informational barriers to college access and success among first- and second-generation immigrants, English learners, students of color, and students from socioeconomically marginalized backgrounds. Dr. Holzman’s ongoing work includes a study of recent immigrant students and school structures than enable their English language acquisition, as well as a study of pathways to and through STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in the wake of a state policy change to high school graduation requirements. He is also co-principal investigator of a National Science Foundation-funded middle school text messaging field experiment that aims to improve parent engagement and child academic and socioemotional outcomes. Dr. Holzman completed his graduate education at Stanford University, earning a master’s degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in sociology of education and higher education administration.

Jacob Kirksey, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Job Document Review
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Dr. Kirksey's scholarship is broadly focused on issues at the nexus of education and other areas of public policy, including immigration policy, child and family policy, and health policy. His work stresses a holistic approach to policymaking by drawing attention to knowledge gaps in how changes made in and outside of schools interact with dynamic educational contexts. The goal of his research is to foster data-driven decision making in local, state, and federal policy to forge win-win public policies that reduce inequity in schools. To evaluate programs and policies, Dr. Kirksey employs quasi-experimental techniques using datasets from school districts, government agencies, and large-scale surveys. He has published extensively on topics related to student absenteeism and truancy, inclusion and special education, the ripple effects of immigration enforcement, and teachers and teacher education. Dr. Kirksey's research has been highlighted in several popular media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Education Week, The Hechinger Report, and Chalkbeat. You can learn more about Dr. Kirksey and his work by visiting his website www.jjacobkirksey.com.

Jay Plasman, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Jay Plasman is an assistant professor in the Workforce Development and Education in the College of Education and Human Ecology at the Ohio State University. Prior to joining The Ohio State University, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses broadly on education policy and explores the pipeline of career and technical education between high school and college along with the role this type of education has on high school dropout rates and college considerations. He formerly worked as a teacher at each of the elementary, middle and high school levels. Plasman also served as the Director of Education at a vocational training school for several years prior to pursuing his PhD.

Anna Saavedra, Research Scientist, University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance, Fellowship Application Assistance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Anna R. Saavedra is a Research Scientist at the University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research. Her research focuses on inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning (e.g. Action Civics, project-based learning). Currently and for the past six years, she has been Principal Investigator (PI) of a large-scale, mixed-methods, randomized controlled trial efficacy study of the implementation and impact of the "Knowledge in Action” (KIA) project-based learning approach to teaching Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. Government and AP Environmental Science, funded by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. She also currently leads a large national study of parents’ perceptions and reports on their children’s educational experiences during COVID-19 with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Prior research included roles leading four studies on the effectiveness of International Baccalaureate and serving as co-PI on a large-scale mixed-methods personalized and mastery-based learning evaluation. She conducts virtually all of her research with economically-disadvantaged and minority students and their teachers. Journals including AERA Open, Economics of Education Review, Teachers College Record, and Harvard Education Press have published her work. Prior to her research career, Dr. Saavedra managed educational programs and partnerships for an educational travel company and taught high school world history. Her education master’s and doctorate are from the Harvard Graduate School of Education

David Troutman, Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Data Officer, University of Texas System

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

David R. Troutman, Ph.D., an expert in higher education administrative data, predictive analytics, and post-collegiate workforce outcomes, is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Institutional Research and Analysis and Chief Data Officer for the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis (OIRA) at The University of Texas System. As the Associate Vice Chancellor, Dr. Troutman and his team of researchers and business intelligence analysts transform data into timely and meaningful information to support UT System initiatives and policy decisions across its 13 institutions and to enhance insight, transparency, and accountability. He promotes continuous improvement and institutional analytics through effective institutional research, data analysis, consulting, and facilitation efforts, collaborating with UT System institutions, federal and state agencies, and higher education associations and foundations to transform data into actionable information. 

Most notably, Dr. Troutman partners with the United States Census Bureau and Texas Workforce Commission to obtain national and state wage data for all UT System graduates. This data is presented through seekUT® (seekUT.utsystem.edu), a free online tool that provides post-graduation outcomes of UT System graduates by program of study. He also oversees the development and implementation of the UT System Dashboard (data.utsystem.edu), a web-based business intelligence system that provides analytics for policy decisions and measures productivity and accountability in higher education. 

Dr. Troutman serves on the boards at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and the Association for Institutional Research. He contributed original research to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Value Commission report released in May 2021. His work has also been featured in various media outlets (The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed) and peer-reviewed journals (e.g., New Directions in Institutional Research and The Journal of Higher Education).

 

 

Family & Child Policy

Dallas Elgin, Research Scientist, RTI International 

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance, Job Document Review
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Dr. Dallas J. Elgin holds a PhD in Public Affairs with an emphasis in Public Policy from the University of Colorado’s School of Public Affairs. Dr. Elgin has more than 12 years of professional experience in the public and private sectors focused on evaluating the effectiveness, equity, and efficiency of programs and policies designed to improve the social and economic wellbeing of individuals, children, and families. He has led studies focused on child welfare and the intersections with an array of human services including, food assistance, housing, and behavioral health programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and multiple state human services agencies. Dr. Elgin’s previous experience includes serving as a Senior Researcher at the Colorado Department of Human Services, Division of Child Welfare, where he served as the state’s senior expert in internal and contracted program evaluation efforts. His child welfare-focused research has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including Governance, Public Management Review, and Children and Youth Services Review.

Matt Stagner, Vice President, Mathematica

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Matthew Stagner directs Mathematica’s Chicago office. He is a nationally known expert on child welfare, teen pregnancy prevention, evaluation design, and the role of research in policymaking. Much of his work focuses on policies and programs for vulnerable youth, such as those transitioning out of foster care. Prior to joining Mathematica, Stagner served as executive director of Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and as a senior lecturer at the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy Studies. Stagner also served as director of the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute and director of the Division of Children and Youth Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While at HHS, Stagner received the National Partnership for Reinventing Government “Hammer Award” for his help in creating the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. He recently served as President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.  He holds a Ph.D. from the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, and a master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Government & Politics

Naim Kapucu, Professor, University of Central Florida, School of Public Administration

Type of Mentoring: Research Guidance, Fellowship Application Assistance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Naim Kapucu, Ph.D., is Pegasus Professor of Public Administration and Policy and former Director of the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He is the founding director of the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management (CPNM) at UCF (2008-2011). He is also Joint faculty at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs and the Center for Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES). Dr. Kapucu received Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Applied Public Policy, Democratic Resilience award jointly hosted by Flinders University and Carnegie Mellon University Australia in 2021. Dr. Kapucu's core research interests are network governance and leadership, decision-making in complex environments, organizational learning and design, and social inquiry and public policy. Dr. Kapucu has published widely in areas of public administration, network governance, and emergency and crisis management. His work has been published in highly ranked journals such as Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Administration & Society, Journal of Public Administration Theory and Research, The American Review of Public Administration, among others. He teaches network governance, leadership in public service, network analysis, and methodology courses.  Prior to joining UCF, Dr. Kapucu received his Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2003. Prior to that, he earned a Master of Public Policy and Management degree from Heinz College's School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1997.

Jin Han Kim, Advisor, Behavioral Insights Team

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Masters Students

Jin is an Advisor at the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), a social purpose consultancy also known as The Nudge Unit. Jin has worked with multiple municipalities, state governments, and multilateral organizations to pilot and evaluate behaviorally informed policies and programs. He has published field experiment findings in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

Jin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Psychology, and China and Asia-Pacific Studies from Cornell University, where he graduated summa cum laude.

 

Kimberly Olson, Senior Advisor, www.biteam.com

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Fellowship Application Assistance
Prefer to Mentor: Masters Students

Kimberly Olson is a public policy professional with over a decade of experience in state and federal government. She is currently a Senior Advisor at the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), where she leads projects with federal, state, and local interlocutors to improve government operations, policies and programs. Prior to joining BIT, she served as Policy Director for Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read, designing policies to help Oregonians save for higher education and retirement. In this role, she authored the administrative rules for OregonSaves, the first-in-the-nation automatic-enrollment retirement savings program for private sector workers, and served as the Treasurer’s designee on the State Board of Education.

Kimberly began her career in the U.S. Foreign Service in diplomatic assignments at the U.S. embassies in Bern, Switzerland, and Ankara, Turkey. She is the recipient of several international fellowships, including the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship (2019-2020), the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship (2006-2008), and the J. William Fulbright Fellowship (2005-2006). She earned a master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and German from the University of Oregon. Kimberly speaks fluent German, conversational Turkish, and lives in Washington DC with her husband and two children.

Jenni Owen, Director of Strategic Partnerships, North Carolina Office of the Governor/State Budget and Management

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Appointed to Director of Strategic Partnerships by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Owen identifies and launches partnerships between state government, universities/colleges, philanthropy and other entities. The strategic partnerships team works with policy officials and scientists to identify research priorities; establishes and convenes networks of public sector and research experts to institutionalize engagement between the sectors; creates and implements learning opportunities for a wide a range of stakeholders; and bridges the work of philanthropy with that of state government. Primary goals include capitalizing on external research expertise for positive impact on policy and increasing internal-to-government research capacity. Stemming from challenges that emerged during COVID-19, the team led, with other partners, the first-ever survey of all NC nonprofit organizations and a statewide internship program to match students from across NC who lost internships with local government and non-profit organizations with capacity needs for COVID-19 response. Both of these initiatives have implications for policy and decision making by government and philanthropy.

Owen was previously Policy Director for the Governor, working closely with cabinet agencies and other state, local, and non-governmental partners to inform and act on the Governor’s policy priorities. Prior to joining the Cooper administration, she was the Director of Policy Engagement and on the faculty of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She co-directed the Duke University School Research Partnership, was the principal investigator for foundation-funded projects, and served as director of the University-Based Child and Family Policy Consortium. In 2007, Owen was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship to South Africa. Before Duke, she was the planning director for the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy. Among other civic roles, she was on the North Carolina Indigent Defense Services Commission, is a board member of El Futuro and the Durham Children’s Initiative, and a member of the APPAM policy council.
She has served twice as an APPAM mentor.

Health Policy

Michael Doonan, Associate Professor, Brandeis University Heller Graduate School

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Michael Doonan is an associate professor at the Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University. He is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, and Director of the Council for Health Care Economics and Policy. His Ph.D. from Brandeis is both in Political Science and Health Services Research. His research and publications focus on issues related to access to health care reform, federalism, Medicaid, federal/state relations, public health and the politics and economics of health system change. He speaks widely on state and national health care reform. He is author of American Federalism in Practice: The Formulation and Implementation of Contemporary Health Policy, published by the Brookings Institute Press in 2013.  

Michael worked as program specialist for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in the area of Medicaid managed care and state health care reform. He served as a member of President Clinton's Health Care Taskforce working primarily on the Low-Income and Working Families work group, and as a member of the Taskforce Speakers Bureau. Michael also worked as a fellow for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in 1994 and began his career as a legislative aide for Senator John Kerry where he worked on health and environmental issues.

Susan Foosness, Associate Vice President, Value Based Care​, Quartet

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Masters Students

I have been working in the field of healthcare, specifically behavioral health, and child welfare in various capacities for almost 20 years. I began my career in direct practice as a child and family psychotherapist after receiving my MSW from the University of Washington. After years of being "in the trenches" I returned to graduate school at Duke University to study health policy and received my MPP in 2014. Since then I worked as a public policy consultant with state and local governments on a variety of child welfare, social policy, and health policy issues. I then transitioned to a major commercial insurance company to develop and lead a new behavioral health strategy. Since January 2021 I have worked at a behavioral health technology and services startup, Quartet, helping to design and implement behavioral health value based care programs for Medicaid managed care. I have expertise in child and family services and policy, health policy, Medicaid, state and local government, and behavioral health. I enjoy mentoring other graduate students; providing advice regarding coursework, projects, internships, and careers; and developing a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship. I am particularly keen to help professionally who may be older, raising a family, or have similar policy interests.

Type of Mentoring: Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Experienced Graduate Research Assistant with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in family medicine practice; and healthcare, and Clinical Research . Strong research professional with a Doctor of Philosophy - PhD focused in Healthcare Policy and Research from Virginia Commonwealth University. Highly interested in healthcare quality and patient safety.

Housing & Community Development

Stephanie Moulton, Professor, The Ohio State University

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

I am a professor of public affairs at the John Glenn College at The Ohio State University, where I study housing and consumer finance policies and programs. My research straddles disciplinary fields, including economics, sociology, consumer science, and public management. I am pragmatic in my approach to research, employing diverse methods and often conducting engaged scholarship with and for practitioners and policymakers, in addition to publishing in academic journals like Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. When I was a doctoral student, I benefited tremendously from the mentorship of more senior scholars in the field, and I am happy to give back and mentor the next generation of scholars.

Kristin Perkins, Assistant Professor, Georgetown University

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Kristin Perkins is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University. Kristin studies inequality and social stratification with a focus on children, families, and neighborhoods. Her research examines the consequences of residential mobility and changes in household composition for children's educational outcomes, the neighborhood contexts of child and adolescent development, and the consequences of housing policies for individuals and neighborhoods. Kristin received a PhD in Sociology & Social Policy at Harvard University, where she was also a doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgetown Kristin was a postdoctoral fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Methodology/Analysis

Micah Melia, Research Advisor, Behavioral Insights Team

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Job Document Review, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Masters Students

Micah is a Research Advisor with BIT North America. She works with city governments to apply behavioral insights across a wide range of policy areas. Micah holds a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and B.A in Anthropology from the University of Kansas, where she graduated with highest distinction and Phi Beta Kappa. Before joining BIT, Micah worked at Mathematica Policy Research and conducted data analysis and program evaluation for federal nutrition and education programs. She also spent time with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to apply behavioral science principles toward improving customer service and operations across their facilities.

Natural Resource, Environment, & Energy

Omar Asensio, Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Dr. Omar Asensio is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. His research focuses at the intersection of big data and public policy, with applications to energy systems and consumer behavior, smart cities, and machine learning in transportation and electric mobility. He directs the Data Science and Policy Lab at Georgia Tech, where he collaborates with the private sector and city governments on data innovations in policy analysis and research evaluation. He is a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS), the Machine Learning Center, and the Strategic Energy Institute. Dr. Asensio’s research has been published in leading journals such as Nature Energy, Nature Sustainability, and PNAS. His work uses statistical and computational tools to advance our understanding of how large-scale civic data and field experiments can be used to increase participation in civic processes, while addressing resource conservation and environmental sustainability. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the APPAM 40-for-40 Fellowship for early career contributions to public policy, and the ONE-NBS Research Impact on Practice Award. Dr. Asensio serves as Associate Editor of Data and Policy journal published by Cambridge University Press. He is also a member of the New Voices cohort at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He holds a doctorate in environmental sciences and engineering from UCLA, with field specialties in economics. Dr. Asensio is engaged in multiple activities to increase the representation of women and under-represented students and professionals in STEM fields.

Heather Campbell, Professor and Chair, Claremont Graduate University

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Either

I am a full professor and Division Chair and have also served as the editor-in-cheif of the Journal of Public Affairs Education and currently serve as the book review editor for JPAM. For the last 10 years, my research has focused on urban environmental policy analysis with a particular focus on minority-based environmental injustice. I have published many articles, some research reports under contract to government entities, and 2 books. I generally teach policy core and statistics and also teach a transdisciplinary course in urban studies. I have taught community-linked courses. I have some insight into minority stresses since I was the only female faculty member in my department for several years when I was untenured. My PhD is in Public Policy Analysis, and I still think that is the best discipline! ;-) But I am transdisciplinary in approach and value the contributions of all social sciences. I have served as a mentor before and was helpful to my mentee.

Sanya Carley, Professor, Indiana University

Type of Mentoring: Research Guidance, General Professional Development, Job Document Review
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Dr. Sanya Carley is a Paul H. O’Neill Professor and Director of the Master of Public Affairs programs at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. Her research focuses on electricity and transportation policy, energy justice and a just transition, energy-based economic development, and public perceptions of energy infrastructure and technologies. She is a coeditor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Dr. Carley has extensive consulting experience with the World Bank, RTI International, and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others. She received her Ph.D. in public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and bachelor’s degrees in economics and sustainable development from Swarthmore College.

Gilbert Michaud, Assistant Professor, Loyola University Chicago

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Gilbert Michaud, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at the School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago.  Michaud also serves as a Faculty Affiliate at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and as a Senior Research Fellow at Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (gLAWcal).  An applied and engaged scholar, Michaud’s research portfolio broadly focuses on renewable energy policy, electricity markets, and sustainable economic development.  He holds a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), as well as a certificate in Data Analytics from Cornell University.

Nicola Ulibarri, Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Nicola Ulibarri is an assistant professor of Urban Planning & Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she uses political, social, and technical perspectives to evaluate the sustainability of environmental planning and decision-making practices. She is also the lead author of "Creativity in Research: Cultivate clarity, be innovative, and make progress in your research journey", book designed to help researchers be more creative. A multi-generational nuevo mexicana, Dr. Ulibarri grew up in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of rural northern New Mexico, where the abundance or scarcity of water is a predominant force shaping the culture, economy, and environment. She earned her PhD through the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment & Resources at Stanford University, and her professional life has spanned the public and non-profit sectors, including work with the US Department of the Interior (Region IX), the World Bank, and Amigos Bravos, a grassroots river-protection nonprofit in New Mexico. She's excited to help students think about navigating interdisciplinary spaces, the weird place we call academia, and getting a job!

Population & Migration

Matthew Hall, Professor Public Policy and Sociology; Director of Cornell Population Center, Cornell University

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance, Fellowship Application Assistance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

I am a demographer at Cornell's policy school, with research focusing on immigration, neighborhood inequality, and residential segregation.

Poverty & Income Policy

Scott Allard, Professor, Professor, University of Washington
 
Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Scott W. Allard is the Associate Dean for Research & Engagement and Daniel J. Evans Endowed Professor of Social Policy at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington. His primary areas of research expertise are urban poverty, employment among low-skill workers, food security, safety net utilization, and the spatial accessibility of governmental and nongovernmental safety net programs.

David Brady, Professor, University of California, Riverside

Type of Mentoring: Job Document Review, General Professional Development, Research Guidance
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

I am a professor of public policy at UC Riverside. I also am research professor in inequality and social policy at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. My PhD is in Sociology & Public Affairs from Indiana University in 2001. My research focuses on (a) poverty and social policy; (b) the effects of long term income and wealth for racial and health inequalities, and (c) the political consequences of rising immigration and ethno-linguistic heterogeneity. I teach about poverty, social policy as well as statistics and research methods.

Tim Smeeding, Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Type of Mentoring: Research Guidance, Job Document Review, General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Ph.D. Students

Timothy M. (Tim) Smeeding is the Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was the founding director of the Luxembourg Income Study from 1983-2006 and was director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW Madison from 2008–2014. He is the 2017 John Kenneth Galbraith Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences committee to build an agenda to reduce the number of children in poverty by half, and a co-author of the report, “A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty” which was released on February 28th, 2019. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Advance Study in Behavioral Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation.      
Tim is a multi-disciplinary scholar with articles that have appeared in the top journals in economics, sociology, political science, policy analysis, demography, social and applied statistics, health care, education and science more generally. His recent work has been on inequality in income wealth and consumption for the same individuals, social and economic mobility across generations, inequality of income, consumption and wealth, a child allowance for the United States, and poverty, especially for children, in national and cross-national contexts.

Public & Nonprofit Management

Jason Coupet, Associate Professor, North Carolina State University 

Type of Mentoring: Research Guidance, General Professional Development, Job Document Review
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Jason Coupet is a University Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Public Administration in the School of Public and International Affairs at NC State. Jason’s Ph.D. is in Strategic Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research interests include strategic management, Data Envelopment Analysis, performance measurement, organizational economics, research methods, and the political economy of organizations. He was also a National Science Foundation Mentoring Fellow in Economics (DITE) at Duke University. His research has appeared in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Public Performance & Management Review, Business Strategy & the Environment, Administration & Society, and Nonprofit Management & Leadership, among others. His work has been funded by the Sloan Foundation, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. His work has been covered by The Washington Post, The Conversation, and The Wall Street Journal, ​​​​​​​among others.

Mentoring with APPAM introduces me to both new scholars and new scholarship!

Marta Garnelo-Caamano, Principal Advisor, The Behavioral Insights Team

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Marta is a Principal Advisor at BIT North America. She works with government agencies and international organizations to design interventions informed by behavioral science and rigorously evaluate its impact to inform policy decisions. Her research expands a diverse set of policy areas. Since joining the team in 2016, Marta has worked on promoting formalization and tax compliance in Mexico and Guatemala; gender-based violence in Egypt, Georgia and Chile; financial inclusion in Mexico; and on education in Peru and Chile. She has collaborated with a wide range of partners, including the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and the President’s Office in Mexico. 

Prior to BIT, she worked as a Senior Policy Associate at MIT’s Poverty Action Lab, leading its activities to promote evidence informed policymaking in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay. Among her major projects was supporting the establishment of MineduLab, the first unit dedicated to implementing low cost innovation using behavioral science in Latin America. Marta holds a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard Kennedy School. She graduated with a concentration in Economic Analysis of Public Policy, Behavioral and Data Science. While at Harvard, she was a Fulbright Scholar and a Real Colegio Complutense Fellow. She holds two undergraduate degrees in Law and Political Science and Public Administration from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Kelsey Gohn, Advisor, Behavioral Insights Team

Type of Mentoring: General Professional Development
Prefer to Mentor: Either

Kelsey is an Advisor at BIT North America. Her work centers on helping local and city governments apply behavioral insights to policy. Prior to BIT, she worked as a management consultant in Accenture’s Health Practice. She received a Bachelor’s from Claremont Mckenna College in Economics and Psychology.