Our Affiliates
Meet the faculty and graduate students who are dedicated to study population research and develop demographic knowledge and skills at Cornell.
Faculty Affiliates
Those in bold are also Demography Field Faculty.
Elizabeth Adkins-Regan
Professor Emerita
Department of Psychology; Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
Ph.D., Physiological psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1971
Research interests: animal social and family relationships; hormonal and neural mechanisms of social behavior
AJ Alvero
Assistant Research Professor
Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society
Ph.D., Sociology of Education & Education Data Science, Stanford University, 2022
Research interests: big data, identity, artificial intelligence, race/ethnicity, NLP
Florio Arguillas
Research Associate
Cornell Center for Social Sciences Research Support
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2011
Research Interests: international labor migration; migration systems; migration and development; family reunification; transnationalism; transnational communities and practices
Rosemary Avery
Professor of Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Family Resource Management, Ohio State University, 1988
Research interests: family formation via adoption of special needs children, impact of media images on consumer choice
Laura Barré
Assistant Clinical Professor of Nutritional Sciences
M.D., Dartmouth Medical School, 2001
Research interests: nutrition and obesity in vulnerable populations (older adults and those with serious mental illness); impact of social media on food choices and eating behaviors
Christopher Barrett
Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management
International Professor of Agriculture
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., Agricultural Economics and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994
Research interests: development economics; environmental and resource economics; international economics
Colleen Barry
Dean of the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Health Policy, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2004
Research interests: health and social policies; mental health, addiction and gun violence.
Alaka Basu
Professor of Global Development
M.Sc. (Medical Demography), Centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Research interests: population studies; reproductive health and family planning; gender and development; child health and mortality; culture and demographic behavior
Victoria Beard
Professor, Associate Dean of Research, Department of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia
Research interests: comparative urbanization and international development planning
Laura Bellows
Associate Professor, Division of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Community Nutrition, Colorado State University
Research interests: community-based interventions, healthy eating, physical activity, early childhood audiences, intervention design
Kendra Bischoff
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 2011
Research interests: social stratification and inequality ; sociology of education; urban sociology
Francine D. Blau
Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Professor of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University, 1975
Research interests: labor economics, economics of gender, economic demography, international comparisons
William C. Block
Research Associate
Cornell Center for Social Sciences Research Support
Ph.D., History, University of Minnesota, 2000
Research interests: social, economic, and health data; metadata
James G. Booth
Professor of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology
Ph.D., Statistics, University of Kentucky, 1987
Research interests: statistical modeling including: categorical data analysis, generalized linear, hierarchical and mixed models
Nicolas Bottan
Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018
Research interests: public economics, behavioral economics, urban economics, labor economics
Charles Brainerd
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Michigan State University, 1970
Research interests: development of cognitive processes in normal and atypical children; adult cognition
David L. Brown
International Professor Emeritus of Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology/demography, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, 1974
Research interests: internal migration and population redistribution; poverty and inequality; aging
Jamie Budnick
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan
Research interests: gender, sexuality, feminist science studies
Diane Burton
Professor and Chair
Human Resource Studies Department, ILR School
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 1996
Research interests: organizational sociology; entrepreneurship; employment relationships; inequality
Sahara Byrne
Professor of Communication
Ph.D., Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007
Research interests: unintended effects of persuasive messaging; youth and media; health communication
Colleen Carey
Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, Johns Hopkins University, 2013
Research interests: health care
Julie H. Carmalt
Associate Director, Senior Lecturer, Sloan Program in Health Administration
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, 2009
Research interests: population health, relationships and health, obesity and risky behavior.
John Carruthers
Director of Graduate Studies, Regional Science; Associate Professor, City & Regional Planning
Ph.D., University of Washington
Research interests: human immigration, environmental quality of life, economic growth, sustainable cities
Marianella Casasola
Associate Dean, College of Human Ecology
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Texas-Austin, 2000
Research interests: infant cognitive development and early word learning, cognition and language acquisition
Patricia Cassano
Professor of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Epidemiology, University of Washington, 1987
Research interests: nutrition and genetics
John Cawley
Professor of Economics & Public Policy; Co-Director, Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy; Department of Economics
Ph.D., Economics , University of Chicago, 1999
Research interests: health economics
Stephen Ceci
Helen L. Carr Professor of Developmental Psychology
Ph.D., Development Psychology, University of Exeter, 1978
Research interests: alternatives to psychometric theories of intellectual development; the bio-ecological theory of intelligence; ecological models of cognitive development; children’s testimonial competence; the accuracy of children’s memory
E-Shien Chang
Assistant Professor of Gerontology in Medicine
Ph.D., Yale University, 2021
Research interests: elder abuse, ageism, social determinants of health, family caregiving
Nancy Chau
Professor of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, 1996
Research interests: international trade; regional economics; development economics
Maria Lorena Cook
Professor Emeritus
Department of International and Comparative Labor and Department of Labor Relations, Law, and History
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California-Berkeley
Research interests: policy and advocacy related to unauthorized migrants and migration
Monica Cornejo
Assistant Professor of Communication
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2022
Research interests: undocumented migration, interpersonal communcation, health & well-being, advocacy communication
Benjamin Cornwell
Professor and Chair of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago, 2007
Research interests: social network analysis; organizations; economic sociology; social stratification; microinteraction
Erin York Cornwell
Development Director, Cornell Population Center
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago, 2008
Research interests: sociology of health; residential context; social isolation; aging
Katherine Dickin
Associate Professor of Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences
PhD, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, 2003
Research interests: maternal and child nutrition, food insecurity, community-based program effectiveness
Mary Jo Dudley
Senior Extension Associate; Director, Cornell Farmworkers Program
Department of Global Development
MRP, Regional Planning, Cornell University, 1996
Research interests: immigrant workers; farmworkers; US-Latin American relation; migration from Latin America to the US; and immigrant communities in the US
Rachel Dunifon
Dean, College of Human Ecology and Professor of Public Policy
Ph.D., Human Development, Northwestern University, 1999
Research interests: child and family policy
John Eckenrode
Professor Emeritus of Human Development
Ph.D., Social Psychology, Tufts University 1979
Research interests: child abuse and neglect, including official child maltreatment reports, the academic effects of child abuse and neglect, and the long-term effects of a program of home visitation on the development of high-risk mothers and their children
Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue
Associate Director, Cornell Population Center
Professor of Global Development
Ph.D., Rural Sociology and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University, 1997
Research interests: sociology of education; demography of inequality; demographic transitions in sub-Saharan Africa
Peter Enns
Robert S. Harrison Director, Cornell Center for Social Sciences
Professor of Government
Ph.D., Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007
Research interests: public opinion, representation, mass incarceration and inequality
Gary W. Evans
Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Ecology
Department of Design and Environmental Analysis; Department of Human Development
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Massachusetts
Research interests: role of physical and social factors in early childhood on the life course trajectory of mental and health and stress; role of elevated cumulative risk exposure in income-related health disparities in children and youth
Jerel Ezell
Assistant Professor of Africana Studies
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago
Research interests: health disparities, social inequality, social network analysis
Gary Fields
Professor of Economics; John P. Windmuller Chair of International and Comparative Labor
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 1972
Research interests: economic development, global economy, human resources management, international and comparative workplace studies, labor economics, leadership, older workers, aging and pensions, rights of working people, social insurance and welfare, wage differentials and inequality
Roger Figueroa
Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017
Research interests: obesity, public health, research methods
Julia L. Finkelstein
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition; The Follett Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Sc.D., Nutritional Epidemiology, Harvard University, 2011
Research interests: micronutrients and maternal and child health; nutrition and neglected tropical diseases; applications of GIS and epidemiologic methods to public health research, with emphasis on infectious disease, nutritional, and reproductive epidemiology; Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia
Maria Fitzpatrick
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Virginia, 2008
Research Interests: economics of education; labor economics; public economics
Gustavo Flores-Macias
Professor of Government and Public Policy
Ph.D., Comparative Government, Georgetown University, 2008
Research interests: the politics of economic reform; the effects of migration in labor-exporting countries
Maria Cristina Garcia
Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies
Ph.D., History, University of Texas, Austin, 1990
Research interests: refugees; immigrants; exiles; transnationals in the Americas
Rick Geddes
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1991
Research interests: infrastructure policy; utility regulation; postal services; women’s property rights
Shannon Gleeson
Professor of Labor Relations, Law & History
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, University of California, Berkeley, 2008
Research interests: experiences of low-wage workers; the role of immigrant documentation status; legal mobilization
Sarah Giroux
Associate Professor of the Practice of Global Development
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2011
Research interests: demographic training and research; sub-Saharan Africa
Michael Goldstein
Associate Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology and Animal Behavior, Indiana University, 2001
Research interests: Infant development in the context of the family, with a focus on mechanisms of social learning
Amelia Greiner Safi
Lecturer of Public Health
Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine and Communication
Ph.D., Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2011
Research interests: public health, environmental/ecological health, policy, and communication.
Matthew Hall
Director, Cornell Population Center
Director, Program for Applied Demographics
Professor of Public Policy & Sociology
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography from Penn State University, 2010
Research interests: immigration; racial/ethnic inequality; residential segregation; population redistribution; spatial demography
Karla Hanson
Senior Lecturer of Public Health
Ph.D., Public Administration, New York University, 1995
Research interests: health and social policy for children and families; food insecurity; obesity
Douglas Heckathorn
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Kansas, 1974
Research interests: social exchange across macrosocial categories, including race and ethnicity, gender, age, and economic status, to analyze quantitatively both social structure and the power differentials encoded in those structures
Thomas Hirschl
Professor of Development Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986
Research interests: social stratification; research methods and statistics; state and local demography
Daniel Hirschman
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan, 2016
Research interests: economic sociology, race and racism, science studies, climate change, finance, higher education
William Hobbs
Assistant Professor of Psychology & Government
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, San Diego, 2016
Research interests: social effects of government policies and how people adapt to changes in their lives
Lee Humphreys
Professor of Communication
Ph.D., Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 2007
Research interests: technology/media, gender, privacy, mobilities
Tristan Ivory
Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Labor
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 2015
Research interests: International Migration, Race and Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Mobility, Labor Market Inequality, Sub-Saharan African Societies, Japanese Society
George H. Jakubson
Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, University of Wisconsin, 1983
Research interests: labor economics; econometrics; welfare policy; family and household structure
David Just
Susan Eckert Lynch Professor in Science and Business
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 2001
Research interests: risk and uncertainty; information; behavioral economics
Lawrence M. Kahn
The Braunstein Family Professor and Professor of Economics and Labor Relations
Ph.D., Economics, University of California-Berkeley, 1975
Research interests: wage inequality; unemployment; employment protection; gender and the labor market; immigration; sports economics
Ravi Kanbur
T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs; International Professor of Applied Economics and Management; Professor of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, University of Oxford, 1981
Research Interests: public finance; theory of income distribution; theory of decision-making under uncertainty; inequality; poverty and development
Max Kapustin
Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 2016
Research interests: reduction in violence in urban settings; improved life outcomes of disadvantaged youth and adults
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein
Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor of American Studies, Emerita
Department of Government
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1975
Research interests: movement activism; incarceration and citizenship in the United States; gender issues; incarceration and race; feminist activism
Donald Kenkel
Joan K. and Irwin M. Jacobs Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1987
Research interests: health economics; public sector economics
Rachel Bezner Kerr
Associate Professor of Global Development
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2006
Research interests: sustainable agriculture; food security; health, nutrition and social inequalities; primary focus in southern Africa
Philipp Kircher
Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations
Ph.D., Economics, University of Bonn, 2006
Research interests: labor markets, wage setting and job assignment, epidemics and behavior change
Cynthia Lin Lawell
Associate Professor and the Robert Dyson Sesquicentennial Chair
Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics
Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University, 2006
Research interests: environmental and public policy
Tashara M. Leak
Lois and Mel Tukman Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Nutrition, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 2015
Research Interest: public health nutrition, child and adolescent nutrition, poverty, food security, health disparities
Yael Levitte
Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, Academic Affairs
Ph.D., Economic Geography, University of Toronto, 2003
Research interests: entry and retention of women in the science labor force; regional economic development; sustainable development
Chuan Liao
Ph.D., Natural Resources & Environment, Cornell University, 2015
Assistant Professor, Global Development
Research interests: agrifood system transformation, sustainable energy transition, global dryland sustainability, and climate change adaptation.
Daniel Lichter
Ferris Family Professor of Sociology & Public Policy, Emeritus
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981
Research interests: family and welfare policy; children’s changing living arrangements and poverty; cohabitation and marriage among unwed mothers; welfare incentive effects on the family; interracial marriage and cohabitation; new destinations of recent immigrants; changing patterns of concentrated poverty in rural areas
Sadé Lindsay
Provost’s New Faculty Postdoctoral Associate (2021-2023)
Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Sociology (beginning 07/2023)
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, The Ohio State University, 2021
Research interests: racial inequality; prison reentry and employment; women’s incarceration; and drug use and policy
Jiawei Liu
Research Associate, Department of Communication
Ph.D., Mass Communications, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research interests: content and effects of mass media and social media messages in public health issues and public policy issues
Michael Lovenheim
The Donald C. Opatrny ’74 Chair in the Department of Economics; Professor
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 2008
Research interests: economics of education (K-12 and higher); local public finance and taxation; consumer behavior
Vida Maralani
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2006
Research interests: social demography; social stratification and inequality; gender; health; education
Alan Mathios
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Pennsylvania , 1985
Research interests: intersection of advertising policy and health; government tax policy and its impact on smoking onset and cessation
David Matteson
Associate Professor of Social Statistics (ILR) and Statistical Science (CIS)
Ph.D., Statistics, University of Chicago, 2008
Research interests: time series; spatio-temporal statistics; biostatistics; Bayesian statistics; functional data analysis; econometrics; machine learning; point processes; semi-parametrics and non-parametrics
Saurabh Mehta
The Janet and Gordon Lankton Professor of Global Health, Epidemiology, and Nutrition
M.B.B.S., All India Institute of Medical Sciences, 2003
Sc.D., Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard University, 2009
Research interests: global health; infectious disease epidemiology; links between nutrition and immune status; maternal and child health
Jamila Michener
Co-Director, Cornell Center for Health Equity; Associate Professor of Government
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Chicago, 2011
Research interests: American politics; poverty and inequality; political participation; race and ethnic politics; urban politics; public policy
Douglas Miller
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, Princeton University, 2000
Research interests: social policy; economic environment and health outcomes.
Laurie Miller
Associate Director, MPA Program, Public Engagement
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
MPA Columbia University, Ed.M. Harvard University
Research interests: Income inequality, immigration, health, education, housing, environmental justice, race, ender, political polarization and representation.
Kelly Musick
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000
Research interests: family demography; social inequality; public policy
Jeff Niederdeppe
Professor Department of Communication and
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 2006
Research interests: effects of mediated messages on health behavior, social policy, and health equity
Anthony Ong
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Southern California, 2002
Research interests: individual differences in vulnerability and resilience to environmental influences
Barum Park
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, New York University, 2020
Research interests: political sociology, social networks, and social mobility
Pilar Parra
Research Associate & Senior Lecturer of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1989
Research interests: immigration; nutrition, diet and chronic disease; health status of minorities (culture, immigration); aging minorities in the U.S.
Max J. Pfeffer
Emeritus Professor of Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986
Research interests: international migration; rural labor markets; health care access; environmental policy
Karl Pillemer
Hazel E. Reed Professor, Department of Human Development; Professor of Gerontology in Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
Ph.D., Sociology, Brandeis University, 1985
Research interests: human development over the life course, with a special emphasis on family and social relationships in middle age and beyond
Ned J. Place
Professor; Director, Endocrinology Section, Animal Health Diagnostic Center
Department of Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences
MD; Ph.D., Medicine (Ob/Gyn); Zoology, University of Rochester (MD); University of Washington (Ph.D.), 1987 (MD); 2000 (Ph.D.)
Research interests: female reproductive aging; ovarian physiology; neuroendocrinology and behavior
Adriana Reyes
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, Pennsylvania State University, 2016
Research interests: family demography and health disparities across the life course, particularly as adults grow older
Valerie Reyna
Professor of Human Development and Psychology; Co-director, Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research; Co-Director, Cornell University Magnetic Resonance Imaging Facility
Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Rockefeller University, 1981
Research interests: human judgment and decision making; numeracy and quantitative reasoning; risk and uncertainty; medical decision making; social judgment; false memory
Peter Rich
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, New York University, 2016
Research interests: how individual decisions in housing, school, and marriage markets reflect and potentially reinforce racial and economic inequalities; how such decisions are impacted by policy and local context
David Sahn
International Professor of Economics; Director, Cornell University Food and Nutrition Policy Program (CFNPP)
Division of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Economics
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984
Research interests: economic development; applied econometrics; labor economics; economics of health and education; the effect of economic policy transitions in Africa and Eastern Europe on poverty and income distribution labor markets and gender issues in developing countries; pricing policy in social sectors food and nutrition policy
Nicolas Sanders
Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Davis
Research interests: environmental policy and regulation, environmental quality, and health
Seth Sanders
Professor of Economics & Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1993
Research interests: labor economics and econometrics; population research
Sharon Sassler
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology/Demography, Brown University, 1995
Research interests: attributes of men who become step-fathers; the timing and circumstances of the transition to fatherhood; effect of union transitions on the health and well-being of single mothers and their offspring; family formation views of cohabiting couples and relationship progression in interracial relationships
Stephan J. Schmidt
Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Planning and Policy Development, Rutgers University, 2006
Research interests: urban environmental issues and policy making; land use planning; social and political context of public space provision
Landon Schnabel
Robert and Ann Rosenthal Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, Indiana University, 2019
Research interests: gender inequality; social inequality related to sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and class
William Schpero
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Department of Population Health Sciences
Ph.D., Health Policy and Management , Yale University, 2019
Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Research interests: health economics; medicaid policy; health care safety net; health care disparities
John Sipple
Professor of Global Development
Ph.D., Education, University of Michigan, 1997
Research interests: organizational response to state and federal policy; policy implementation; sociology of education; neo-institutionalism; rural schools and communities
Elliott G. Smith
Research Associate; Associate Director, National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect
Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, Cornell University, 1998
Research interests: The outcomes and well-being of children who have suffered maltreatment by their caregivers
Jeffrey Sobal
Professor Emeritus
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 1978
Research interests: nutrition; obesity; health
Richard Stedman
Professor and Department Chair of Natural Resources and the Environment
Ph.D., Sociology and Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research interests: the challenges that rapid social and ecological changes pose for the sustainability of forested ecosystems, watersheds, and human communities
Bryan Sykes
Associate Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology & Demography, University of California – Berkeley
Research interests: general demography, statistical & demographic methods, population health, research methodology, computational methods, law & society, criminology, inequality/social stratification
Laura Tach
Associate Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology and Social Policy, Harvard University, 2010
Research interests: poverty & public policy; family demography; neighborhood inequality
Felix Thoemmes
Associate Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Quantitative Psychology, Arizona State University, 2009
Research interests: quantitative methods and design; causal inference; missing data
Lowell Turner
Professor Emeritus of International and Comparative Labor; Founding Director, The Worker Institute
School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1990
Research interests: politics; urban labor movements; coalition building; global warming; and the civic integration of immigrant workers
Lars Vilhuber
Executive Director, Labor Dynamics Institute; Senior Research Associate
Department of Economics
Ph.D., Economics, Université de Montréal, 1999
Research interests: statistical disclosure limitation issues; effects and causes of mass layoffs; worker mobility; dynamics of the local labor market
Jan Vink
Research Support Specialist
Program on Applied Demographics
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
M.S., Econometrics, University of Groningen, 1986
Research interests: applied demographics; population projections; population estimates; state and local demography
Jeremy Wallace
Associate Professor of Government
Ph.D., Political Science, Stanford University, 2009
Research interests: politics of urbanization; migration in China; nondemocratic regimes
Maureen R. Waller
Professor of Sociology & Public Policy
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Sociology, Princeton University, 1997
Research interests: marriage, fatherhood, and child support in low-income communities in the United States
Qi Wang
Professor of Human Development
Ph.D., Psychology, Harvard University, 2000
Research Interests: intersection of cognitive and social development, focusing on the development of autobiographical memory
Mildred Warner
Professor of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University, 1997
Research interests: devolution and privatization in local, state, and national policy and their impacts on community and economic development
Kim Weeden
Jan Rock Zubrow ’77 Professor of Sociology; Director, Center for the Study of Inequality
Ph.D., Sociology, Stanford University, 1999
Research Interests: social inequality; poverty; social class; gender inequality; work-family policies
Martin T. Wells
Charles A. Alexander Professor of Statistical Sciences
Ph.D., Mathematics, University of California, 1987
Research interests: applied and theoretical statistics and sometimes cross the boundary into applied probability
Nancy Wells
Senior Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Education; Professor of Design & Environmental Analysis
Ph.D., Psychology & Architecture, University of Michigan, 2000
Research interests: influence of the built and natural environment on human health and well-being through the life course; effects of housing and neighborhood characteristics on mental and physical health; influence of nature access on cognitive functioning and psychological well-being; effects of neighborhood and community design features on physical activity and diet.
Elaine Wethington
Professor Emeritus of Human Development & Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan, 1987
Research interests: sociology of mental health; epidemiology of mental and stress-related illness; sociology of aging and the life course; work-family integration, sociology of the family
Janis Whitlock
Research Scientist; Lecturer
Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research; Department of Human Development
Ph.D., Human Development, Cornell University, 2003
Research interests: adolescent and young adult mental health and wellbeing
Matthew Wilkens
Associate Professor of Information Science
Ph.D., Literature, Duke University
Research interests: computational methods in the humanities, natural language processing, historical economic and demographic change, geographic analysis of large textual corpora.
Eleanor Wilking
Assistant Professor of Law
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan, 2018
Research interests: public finance, labor/employment, law and economics
Lindy Williams
Professor Emeritus of Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology, Brown University, 1987
Research interests: family, gender, life course, Southeast Asia
Wenfei Xu
Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning
Ph.D., Urban Planning, Columbia University, 2022
Research interests: Neighborhood change, segregation and stratification, big data, urban data science, housing policy
Stephen W. Yale-Loehr
Professor of Immigration Law Practice
Cornell Law School
J.D., Cornell University, 1981
Research interests: U.S. immigration, asylum law
Caroline Yancey
Associate Director, International Programs and Lecturer
Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
Research interests: disease surveillance, epidemiology, zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, and international capacity building
Duanyi Yang
Assistant Professor of Labor Relations, Law, and History
Ph.D., MIT
Research interests: labor relations, gender, work and family policies, worker voice and union
Cristobal Young
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, Princeton University, 2010
Research Interests: economic sociology, stratification, statistical methods
John Zinda
Assistant Professor of Global Development
Ph.D., Sociology and Community & Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2013
Research interests: environmental sociology, risk and disaster, flood risk exposure and management, urban inequality, land use and land cover change, rural livelihoods, migration
Postdoctoral Affiliates
Jason Anderson, Psychology
Sharon Ayalon, TECH-Jacobs
Luisa Cortesi, Science and Technology Studies and Anthropology
MC Forelle, Cornell Tech
Laura Huber, Government
Jiwon Lee, Cornell Population Center
Meiying Li, Brooks Public Policy
Sijing Shao, Psychology
Leila Wilmers, SOC
Shuai Zhou, Global Development
Gaoxia Zhu, Human Development
Graduate Student Affiliates
Those in bold are also Demography Minors.
Erika Abbott (SOC)
Research interests: family, poverty, public policy, inequality, qualitative and mixed methods
Agnes af Sandeberg (AEM)
Research interests: food policy, agricultural economics, dairy science, sustainability
Iman Alsmadi (SOC)
Research interests: crimmigration, incarceration, reentry media narratives, inequality
Ezgi Bilgin (HD)
Research interests: autobiographical memory, collective memory
Daphne Blakey (PUBPOL)
Research interests: poverty, incarceration
Gabriel Butler (PUBPOL)
Research interests: economics of health, labor, and aging; inequality in US, China, other countries
Jadon Buzzard (ECON)
Research interests: public economic & labor economics, with an emphasis on policing, vulnerable populations, and risky behaviors
Kenjin Chang (DEA)
Research interests: influences on diet and food choice, and implications for sustainability.
Elisa (yu-chun) Cheng (ECON)
Research interests: public finance
Samantha De Leon Sautu (PSY, HD)
Research interests: psychophysiology of social yielding.
Karina Edouard (ANTHR)
Research interests: immigration, intergenerational trauma, health equity, Afro-Caribbean diasporic communities
Nan Feng (SOC)
Research interests: social network analysis, social inequality, quantitative methodology, economic sociology
Maria-Jose (Majo) Flor-Agreda (SOC)
Research interests: inequality, economic sociology and organizations, gender
Kathryn Foster (DSOC)
Research interests: Migration and environmental justice
Gwyneth Frederick (DNS)
Research interests: Community food systems, Health equity, nutrition environment
Katharina Geppert (SOC)
Research interests:
Thelonious Goerz (SOC)
Research interests: demography, spatial inequality, neighborhoods, health and aging, quantitative methods
Katrina Hamilton (SOC)
Research interests: Spatial inequality, demography, health, deaths of despair, work
Zhuang Han (GDEV)
Research interests: Inequality and demographic dividend, family demography, labor sociology, education
Yuexing Hao (HCD)
Research interests: health intelligence, human-computer interaction, VR/AR
Emiliano Harris (ECON)
Research interests: public economics, urban economics, economic history
Adrian Haws (AEM)
Research interests: labor economics, economic history
Sierra Hicks (NTRES)
Research interests: co-production, inequality, indigenous data sovereignty, indigenous knowledge sovereignty, policy
Senan Hogan-Hennessy (ECON)
Research interests: empirical economics, labor economics, inequality
Lydia Homandberg (SOC & PUBPOL)
Research interests: computational demography, health disparities
Emily Jackson (GOV)
Research interests: reproductive politics abortion, family planning, public opinion, gender, Latin America
Vrinda Kapoor (AEM)
Research interests: labor economics, health economics, gender inequality
Emil Kee-Tui (AEM)
Research interests: impact of the environment on human health
Chae Kim (SOC)
Research interests:
Elena Krasovskaia (AEM)
Research interests: food, public, behavioral, and experimental economics
Sang-O Kim (CRP)
Research interests: aging society, mobility of care
Hazel Lee, (Regional Science)
Research interests: sustainable transition, socio technical energy transition, urbanization
Hyo Joo Lee (SOC)
Research interests: Parental investment, gender inequality in the labor market
Hao Liang (SOC)
Research interests: immigration, residential segregation, sequence analysis and methodology
Carlos Lopez (CRP)
Research interests: intergenerational mobility in global south cities, informal urbanization, slum upgrading, long-term impacts of slum upgrading on beneficiaries living standards.
Yi Lu (PSY)
Research interests: the aging population, age-related differences in self-concepts, social relations, and decision-making outcomes.
Rifqi Maulana (CRP)
Research interests: education, spatial demography, development economics
Sandra Mosqueira Caminada (PUBPOL)
Research interests: migration, Latin America, disabilities, education
Duke Mwedzi (GDEV)
Research interests: education, human capital, Southern Africa
Deborah Nakkungu (PUBPOL)
Research interests: development economics and health economics
Giulia Olivero (PUBPOL)
Research interests: Family, immigration, education
Kira Olsen-Medina (SOC)
Research interests: immigration policy
Alvaro Padilla Pozo (SOC)
Research interests: health inequality, urban sociology, human mobility, climate change
Leonardo Peñaloza-Pacheco (ECON)
Research interests: labor economics, economics of migration, international economics, development economics
Peter Polhill (ILR)
Research interests: labor, entrepreneurship, migration, and policy
Maya Porath (CRP)
Research interests: housing, community development, property
Bharathy Premachandra (COM)
Research interests: inequity, education, health, interventions, meta-science
Cody Reed (SOC)
Research interests: social stratification
Jillian Royal (SOC)
Research interests: race & ethnicity, public policy
Katharine Sadowski (PUBPOL)
Research interests: social policy
Sam Safford (SOC)
Research interests: Gender, measurement, health, public policy, quantitative and mixed methods
Nathália Santos (SOC)
Research interests: Urban neighborhoods, community dynamics and computational social science
Yongxin Shang (PUBPOL)
Research interests: family demography, health inequalities, population aging
Jenna Shelton (PUBPOL)
Research interests: child welfare & family policy, child poverty, housing and homelessness, juvenile justice, education
Chloe Smith (PUBPOL)
Research interests: health economics, economics of crime, drug policy
Laura Sullivan (PUBPOL)
Research interests: poverty and inequality, spatial demography, urban policy.
Andrea Urbina (CRP)
Research interests: housing policy, urban planning, governance in the Global South
Jocelyn Vega-Robledo (SOC)
Research interests: sociology of education, immigration, gender, labor
Yiran Wang (MPA)
Research interests: Social policy, sociology in health, aging, gender, inequality, organizational sociology
Ziyi Wang (ECON)
Research interests: population studies, immigration, and labor economics
Meredith Welch (PUBPOL)
Research interests: poverty, social policy, education, the labor market
Savannah Whitehead (MPA)
Research interests: demography, race, income, lifecycle, cohort tracking, geospatial data analysis
Yaling Xu (ECON)
Research interests: labor economics, health economics, higher education, gender gap
Haowen Zheng (SOC)
Research interests: stratification, demography
External Affiliates
Chris Hess
Assistant Professor
Sociology & Criminal Justice
Kennesaw State University
Research interests: residential segregation, neighborhoods, geography of place-based inequalities
Serap Kavas
Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Research interests: family demography, developmental idealism, gender, & migration
Renee Luthra
Professor of Sociology
University of Essex
Research interests: Causes and consequences of international migration on education and labour market outcomes, family dynamics and parenting practices, and mental health and wellbeing.
Luca Maria Pesando
Associate Professor of Social Research and Public Policy
New York University – Abu Dhabi
Research interests: Demography, family, poverty, inequality, education, social stratification, child wellbeing, technology, diffusion, big data, methods, policy evaluation, public policy
Linda Zhao
Neubauer Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Chicago
Research interests: Social networks, intergroup dynamics, immigrant integration, policing, race and ethnicity, demography, neighborhoods, computational social science
Affiliate Spotlight
Bryan L. Sykes’ research focuses on demography and criminology, broadly defined, with particular interests in population processes (e.g., fertility, mortality, enumeration), mass incarceration, global population health, social inequality, law & society, and research methodology. His research applies and develops demographic, statistical, and mixed methodologies to understand changing patterns of inequality — nationally and abroad and has appeared in general and multidisciplinary science, social science, and medical journals. He serves as an Associate Editor for Science Advances (the open-access version of Science) and is a former Academic Editor of Public Library of Science (PLoS) One and a former Co-Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Perspectives.
His current research projects examine the racial and spatial distribution of monetary sanctions in America, and how economic, socioeconomic, and information inequality effects compliance with formal court- and state-orders for rehabilitation among poor defendants, probationers, and parolees. Professor Sykes received his Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the University of California-Berkeley and a B.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.