Summer 2021 News & Events

With the summer days winding down, we look toward the academic year ahead. Our summer newsletter includes updates on our new lead dean, the exciting lineup of speakers, training programs, and affiliate research. We look forward to keeping you posted on the innovative population research happening at Cornell. Matt Hall, CPC Director

This is an exciting time for CPC as it welcomes the newly established Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, led by Colleen Barry as the inaugural Dean. Dean Barry will begin her term on September 15th. Read more in the Cornell Chronicle.

PAA 2021 CPC had a strong presence at the PAA annual meeting with one graduate student receiving an award. Congratulations to Remy Stewart (Ph.D. Student in Sociology) for her award winning poster titled, "From Leaving Welfare to Leaving Food Stamps: A Multilevel Event History Analysis of SNAP Exits". Link to PAA presenters and poster slide show on the CPC website.

NextGenPop Cornell and collaborating population centers have been awarded an NICHD R25 for NextGenPop: Recruiting the Next Generation of Scholars into Population Research (co-PIs Kelly Musick and Marcy Carlson, with site leaders Ann Meier, Giovanna Merli, and Bryan Sykes). This new summer research education program aims to significantly increase the pipeline of scholars from underrepresented backgrounds entering the field of population science. More to come!

2021-22 Seminar Series  We welcome the year with a talk by Ridhi Kashyap (Nufffield College, University of Oxford) followed by a graduate student reception hosted by the Computational Policy Working Group (CPWG). The Innovations in Population Science Seminar planning committee members Alexandra Cooperstock (SOC), Daphne Blakey (PAM), Peter Fiduccia (Development Sociology) and Camille Portier (SOC), put together an exciting line-up of speakers for the year ahead including Amy Hsin (Queens College, CUNY), Jeremy Fiel (Rice), Siwei Cheng (New York University), Kate Wiesshaar (UNC-Chapel Hill), Mathew Hauer (Florida State University), and Kitt Carpenter (Vanderbilt University). Link to the seminar series schedule.

Visit the Cornell Population Center, Video on Demand Channel to view the 2020-21 Innovations in Population Science Seminars and select Graduate Student Training Proseminars.

Center for Aging and Policy Studies Co-sponsored events with CAPS begin with Tyson Brown (Duke University), and Patricia Homan (Florida State University) on October 1st followed by Courtney Boen (UPenn) on November 5th. The CAPS consortium with Syracuse University as the lead includes the Cornell Population Center and the School of Public Policy of the University at Albany and 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 in collaboration with the Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS) and the Cornell Center for Health Equity launched an exciting NIH Grant Development Program that welcomed its first cohort group that is preparing to submit their proposals to NIH in the fall. This effort is led by CPC's Development Director, Erin York Cornwell (SOC). Read more and meet the NIH grant writing cohort.

Demography Training Program

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. The welcome and PAA prep session will take place on September 10th at noon. Vida Maralani (SOC) is the Graduate Student Training Director. Link to more information.

Computational Policy Working Group The CPWG forum for discussions of digital and computational approaches to population policy research is coordinated by Chris Hess (PAM Postdoc) and Ari Decter-Frain (Ph.D. Student in PAM). Faculty and students interested in the intersection of novel forms of data, advanced statistical methods and policy research about population dynamics are all encouraged to participate in the working group. Link to CPWC information and schedule. Postdoctoral Social Sciences Working Group All social sciences postdocs are invited to participate in the Postdoctoral Social Scientists' Working Group, co-sponsored by CPC, the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, CCSS, and the Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI). This group fosters the development of work in progress and research collaborations through monthly meetings and is facilitated by Linda Zhao, CPC Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow. Link to more information. CPC Postdoc Opportunity Coming soon—look out for CPC's call for applications for the Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Affiliate Highlights

Faculty Affiliate Spotlight Vida Maralani (SOC, CPC Training Director, CSI Interim Director) with co-author, Camille Portier (PhD Candidate, SOC) recently published, “The Consolidation of Education and Health in Families,” in the American Sociological Review. Their research shows that couples accumulate advantages in their families by matching jointly on multiple beneficial resources, such as education and non-smoking, in long-term relationships. Matching on multiple characteristics consolidates advantage by leveraging resources people have as individuals to their families, households, and circle of care. Link to faculty affiliates.

Graduate Student Spotlight Ari Decter-Frain, a rising third-year PhD student in PAM, and Canadian citizen was recently awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship. This summer he worked as a machine learning engineer at Graphika. His research interests include computational demography, election fairness, text as data, software development, and the need for stakeholder engagement in data science work. Ari is a co-coordinator of the Computational Policy Working Group. Read more about CPC graduate students.

Undergraduate Student Spotlight Diana Park is a rising senior at Cornell University, majoring in Global and Public Health Sciences with minors in Health Equity, Health Policy, and Demography. Diana is passionate about community health, specifically addressing health accessibility and the importance of social determinants of health in maintaining equitable health within our communities. Diana is currently a PRYDE Scholar, promoting Youth Participatory Action Research and positive development in the NYS youth community through independent translational research. Read more about opportunities for undergraduate minors.

CPC Alumni Recognition Xing Sherry Zhang (PhD, PAM '18) is an Assistant Professor of Population Health in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. As a public policy demographer, her research focuses on the role of parent-child relationships in shaping young adult health from adolescence to adulthood, and how this varies across race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. She was a Health Disparities Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Wisconsin - Madison from 2018-2020. She is grateful to her mentors at Cornell, including Sharon Sassler, Kelly Musick, and Daniel Lichter, and to the CPC for facilitating research opportunities and exchanges for graduate students.

Welcome New Affiliates!

Jamein Cunningham (PAM) | Research interests include: economics of crime, urban economics; labor economics; applied microeconometrics; and demography.

Kate Dickin (Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Veterinary Medicine) | Research interests include: maternal and child nutrition; food insecurity; community-based program effectiveness in low-income families in US and in low-income countries.

Sadé L. Lindsay (PAM) | Research Interests include: racial inequality; prison reentry and employment; women's incarceration; and drug use and policy.

Claudia von Vacano (Cornell Center for Social Sciences) | Research interests include: qualitative, mixed methods, and translational research; educational measurement and technology; organizational behavior; computational social sciences; diversity and inclusion and culturally responsive pedagogy.

Affiliate Research and Awards

Kendra Bischoff (SOC), Laura Tach (PAM), and Linda Shi (AAP) received a Cornell Migrations Grant entitled "Risk or Refuge: Inequality in Exposure to Environmental Vulnerability in California". John Cawley (Economics, PAM, Cornell in Washington) has been named the next director of the Cornell in Washington program. Read more in the Cornell Chronicle. Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue (Global Development) discussed empowering Cameroonian youth in the article, “How Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue is leading the global conversation on population and development” in the CornellCALS News. Peter Enns (Government, Public Policy) has been named the director of the Cornell Center for Social Sciences. Enns, along with three co-authors, published the book, "Highjacking the Agenda: Economic Power and Political Influence". Read more in the Cornell Chronicle. Maria Fitzpatrick (PAM, Cornell Institute of Public Affairs) and Matt Hall (PAM) discussed their Big Data Policy Program for high school students – developed by eCornell, the School of Continuing Education (SCE) and the nonprofit National Education Equity Lab (NEEL) – in the Cornell Chronicle. Tashara Leak (Nuritional Sciences) received a 5-year USDA NIFA grant ($990,000; 2021-2025) titled, “The Advanced Cooking Education (ACE) Urban 4-H After-School Club: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial”. Read more on the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture website. Michael Lovenheim (Economics, Public Policy, Industrial and Labor Relations) recently published, "Home prices, fertility, and early-life health outcomes" in the Journal of Public Economics. Kelly Musick (PAM) with Patrick Ishizuka (Washington University in St. Louis, Frank H.T. Rhoads Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016-2019) published, "Occupational Inflexibility and Women's Employment During the Transition to Parenthood" in Demography. Ben Rosche (PhD Candidate, SOC) has been awarded a two-year $240,000 National Science Foundation Grant for his project to examine he consequences of adolescent friendships that bridge socioeconomic boundaries for the long-term socioeconomic attainment of disadvantaged youth. Read more about the project. Jan Vink (Program on Applied Demographics, PAM) discussed the 2020 Census in the Times Union article, "The hardest census: historic challenges could mean more errors in 2020 data". Vink also repackaged the NY #Census2020 redistricting data and combined it with 2000 and 2010 data. Results can be found on the PAD website at Census 2020 redistricting results. Linda Zhao (CPC Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow) with Filiz Garip (Princeton) published “Network Diffusion Under Homophily and Consolidation as a Mechanism for Social Inequality” in Sociological Methods & Research. Nicolas Ziebarth (PAM, Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures) with co-authors published the brief report, “Awareness and use of (emergency) sick leave: US employees’ unaddressed sick leave needs in a global pandemic” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 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, Changing Definitions for Core and Urban Areas: Federal Funding Eligibility Impacts by Adriana Hernandez, Jan Vink, and Robin Blakely-Armitage. Link to the New York Minute.

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