Spring 2021 News & Events Global pandemic, enduring climate change, heightened awareness to social injustice, and intensified technological movements are just a few examples of how the world – and its population – are undergoing rapid change. Understanding population change has never been more relevant, and CPC strives to advance population science in innovative and impactful ways. Matt Hall, CPC Director

Spring Events and Highlights

PAA 2021 CPC will have a strong presence at PAA, with nearly 40 faculty and graduate student affiliates from across campus presenting over 70 papers and posters, with nine individuals serving as discussants and chairs. CPC made twelve registration fee awards to graduate students. Thanks to funding from PAA, this year over 25 undergraduate students will attend. Read more on the CPC at PAA webpage. Midday Break at PAA for Affiliates, Alumni, & Friends Take a break and join us for a midday get-together on Thursday, May 6, 12:15-12:45 PM CT. Zoom link to attend.

CPC Seminar Series Highlights from co-sponsored talks with PAM include Regina Baker (University of Pennsylvania) presenting, "The Enduring Significance of Ethno-Racial in Poverty in the U.S.", and Bryan Sykes (University of California-Irvine) with, "A New Malthusian Population Check: Mass Incarceration and Fertility in America".

Maarten Bijlsma (University of Groningen, Max Planck Institute for Demographic research) is presenting the final Innovations in Population Science seminar titled "Concentrated Disadvantage and Stress in Daily Life". Fenaba Addo (UNC, Public Policy) will present the next joint seminar with PAM titled, "Middle Class Attainment in Young Adulthood: Higher Education, Racial Disparities, and Wealth Inequality" The newly-formed graduate student Innovations in Population Science Seminar Series Planning Committee is developing the 2021-22 seminar series. Committee members include Alexandra Cooperstock (SOC), Daphne Blakey (PAM), Peter Fiduccia (Development Sociology) and Camille Portier (SOC). Link to seminar series detail.

Visit the Cornell Population Center Video on Demand Channel

Affiliates in the Racism in America Webinar Series New faculty affiliate, Jerel Ezell (American Studies Program, Africana Studies and Research Center) and Jamila Michener (GOV) discussed the impact that racism has on access to healthcare and health outcomes on the "Health" panel of the yearlong Cornell Arts and Sciences, Racism in America series.  Read more and link to online recordings. Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS)

Michal Engelman (University of Wisconsin) and her presentation, “Deaths, Disparities, and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage: How Social Inequities shape an Impairment Paradox in Later Life" was a highlight of the CAPS speaker series. CAPS is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) P30 Demography and Economics of Aging Centers program.   Read about all CAPS events.

Grant Development Program Update

CPC Development Director, Erin York Cornwell (SOC) is stewarding a new collaboration hosted by the Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS) in partnership with the Cornell Center for Health Equity. The CCSS NIH Grant Development Program features three components: a workshop series, pilot grants, and a grant development fellowship. The workshop series is complete and was well-attended by Cornell faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and researchers. Several CPC faculty affiliates are participating in the program. Read more and meet the NIH grant writing cohort.

Training Program Highlights

Demography Graduate Student Proseminar  The demography training proseminar covers a mix of topics, from professional development to statistical methods, while introducing students to the community of demographers on campus. Seth Sanders (ECON) presented two of a 3-part series on Finite Mixing Models with the third scheduled on May 21st. Joe Salvo, Chief Demographer, Population Division, NYC Dept. of City Planning shared what the life of an applied demographer is like in a big city. Link to more information.

PAA 2021 Practice Talks CPC hosted a PAA practice session for 12 graduate students who are presenting at PAA this year. Attendees provided comments to students on their presentations or posters with the goal to help improve their presentations by practicing their talks and getting feedback on their slides and delivery. It was a good way to see all the exciting and innovative work being done by demography students across campus.  Link to training program information.   Computational Policy Working Group The Computational Policy Working Group (CPWG) has been formed to provide a forum for discussions of digital and computational approaches to population policy research. The working group features a range of paper presentations, methods demonstrations, software tutorials and professional development. The CPWG is coordinated by Chris Hess (PAM Postdoc) and Ari Decter-Frain (Ph.D. Student in PAM), with support from Matt Hall (CPC Director). Link to CPWC information. Social Sciences Working Group The most recent postdoc working group focused on research by Linda Zhao (Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow, CPC), "Relational Dynamics of Influence and Selection on Police Misconduct". The working group meets monthly and is cosponsored by CPC, the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, CCSS, and the Center for the Study of Inequality. Link to more information.

Affiliate Highlights

CPC's Advisory Committee welcomes new members: Victoria Beard (City and Regional Planning), Tristan Ivory (ILR), Kelly Musick (PAM), Nicholas Sanders (PAM, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs) and Richard Stedman (Natural Resources and the Environment).

Faculty Affiliate Spotlight Adriana Reyes (PAM) recently published "Addressing the Diverse Needs of Unpaid Caregivers Through New Health-Care Policy Opportunities" in the Public Policy & Aging Report, Oxford Academic. Reyes has recently received grant awards through the Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America, the Cornell Center for Social Science, and the Center for Aging and Policy, Upstate New York Consortium pilot grant funding through its National Institute on Aging P30 Demography and Economics of Aging Centers program.   Link to faculty affiliates.

Graduate Student Spotlight Camille Portier (PhD Student, SOC) is interested in the processes that create and reinforce inequalities across people’s life course and time. Currently, she focuses on how occupational characteristics influence inequalities. One working paper with Vida Maralani examines whether occupational characteristics explain the association between wages and BMI and how this differs by gender and race. This work will be presented at PAA. Read more about CPC graduate students.

Undergraduate Student Spotlight Pearlanna Zapotocky (B.S., HE, expected 2021) is minoring in demography. Zapotocky has spent her time at Cornell investigating the social, physical, and economic conditions that impact population health. Specifically, she is interested in the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions meant to foster healthy childhood development among vulnerable populations. For her senior honors thesis, she partnered with the Tompkins County Department of Social Services to investigate the efficacy of Family Drug Treatment Court in reuniting families in the child welfare system separated by substance misuse. After graduation, she plans to attend NYU for an MPH in Community Health Science and Practice.  Read more about opportunities for undergraduate minors.

CPC Alumni Recognition Brian Thiede (Ph.D., DSOC ’14) is currently an Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology, Sociology, and Demography at The Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on two sets of issues: the demographic impacts of environmental change; and rural poverty and inequality. Thiede’s current activities include an NIH-funded project examining the effects of climate variability on child and maternal health, and USDA funded projects on income inequality, poverty, and natural resource development in rural communities. He frequently collaborates across disciplinary lines, which he credits to his Demography coursework and an IGERT traineeship while at Cornell. Thiede is grateful for his mentors at Cornell, including current and former CPC faculty David Brown, Dan Lichter, Max Pfeffer, and Chris Barrett.

Affiliate Research and Awards

Chris Barrett (AEM) presented his research on mapping food systems past mid-century at the virtual Earth Day Global Forum, hosted by the New York City Diplomatic Community. Read more in the Cornell Chronicle. Kendra Bischoff (SOC) and Laura Tach (PAM) received the IPUMS Spatial Research Award for published research for "School Choice, Neighborhood Change, and Racial Imbalance Between Public Elementary Schools and Surrounding Neighborhoods." Francine D. Blau (ILR), Lawrence M. Kahn (ILR), Matthew Comey (Ph.D. Candidate PAM), Amanda Eng (Ph.D. Candidate Econ), Pamela Meyerhofer (Ph.D. PAM 2020, Montana State) PAM, and Alexander Willén (Ph.D. PAM 2018, Norwegian School of Economics received the IPUMS Time Use Published Research Award for, "Culture and gender allocation of tasks: source country characteristics and the division of non-market work among US immigrants." Rachel Dunifon (Cornell Human Ecology), Mariana Amorim (Ph.D.PAM, 2019, Washington State University) with Natasha V. Pilkauskas received the IPUMS USA Research Award for best published paper for "Historical Trends in Children Living in Multigenerational Households in the United States: 1870–2018." Jerel Ezell (American Studies Program, Africana Studies and Research Center) published his research on the experience of "intersectional trauma" among racial/ethnic minorities in COVID-19, the Flint Water Crisis, Hurricane Katrina, & Hurricane Maria in Traumatology. Shannon Gleeson (ILR) was awarded CCSS funding to work on a book with Xóchitl Bada titled, “Portable Rights for Migrant Workers: Bringing the Sending State Back into the Local”. Read the Cornell Chronicle article. Dan Lichter (PAM) was named to the U.S. Census Bureau National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations (NAC). Read the full article. Vida Maralani (SOC) and Celene Reynolds (Postdoctoral Fellow in ILR), received CCSS funding for “Sex Discrimination and Title IX Enforcement in the Academy”. Read the Cornell Chronicle article. Doug Miller (PAM) was awarded a CCSS grant for “Machine Learning for Prediction of Tax Evasion.” Read the Cornell Chronicle article. Kelly Musick (PAM) with Pilar Gonalons-Pons and Christine Schwartz published, "Changes in Couples' Earnings Following Parenthood and Trends in Family Earnings Inequality" in Demography. Adriana Reyes (PAM) and Erin York Cornwell (SOC) were awarded CCSS funding for their research, "Changes in Social Contact Due to COVID-19 and Implications for Health and Well-Being of Older Adults.” Read the Cornell Chronicle article. Peter Rich (PAM) with Jennifer Candipan and Ann Owens published "Segregated Neighborhoods, Segregated Schools: Do Charters Break a Stubborn Link?" in Demography. Jan Vink (Program on Applied Demographics, PAM) discussed the 2020 Census in "Political Ramifications Show Importance Of Filling Out Census Form" on NPR's Morning Edition. Link to CPC Research and Awards.

Population Studies in Practice: The New York Minute

The New York Minute is published through the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics every other month and highlights NYS trends and data sources on varying community development topics. Read the most recent edition, Are NYS hospitals overloaded with COVID 19 patients? by Robin Blakely-Armitage, Jan Vink, and Adriana Hernandez. Link to the New York Minute.

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