Research Statement Sample: Public Policy
RESEARCH SUMMARY
My career has consistently reected overlapping interests in public policy, governance and the capacity for public sector decisions to inuence
individuals’ opportunities to pursue educational goals, achieve economic independence and participate in their communities. During the rst 15
years of my career, I focused heavily on applied research, especially program evaluation, typically in the traditional social policy arena including
human services, workforce development and education. I began doctoral studies to conduct scholarly research about the policy process and its
impacts. In particular, I investigated how policy actors inuence government decisions via stakeholder and interest group mobilization—further,
how policy decisions dierentially impact low-income and disadvantaged communities. My scholarly record aligns well with the multiple Berkley
faculty focusing on social justice scholarship and policy eects on underserved populations.
While I have a strong background in social policy, including poverty/self-suciency and long-term services policies, I have also engaged in several
studies related to current environmental and energy policy issues, reecting an interest in how policies change in the face of ongoing economic
and climatic shifts. I take a multi-disciplinary approach to research, and my work reects a commitment to using rigorous qualitative and
quantitative methods. As a fellow with the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program (NSF-GRFP), I had the unique
opportunity to participate in multiple supplementary research projects that matched my interests and educational needs. Given this experience
with obtaining federal funding and contributing to several successful faculty grant proposals, I’m condent I can obtain grants from foundations
such as MacArthur and Horowitz and build toward more prestigious awards like those with the NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
division.
During the course of my doctoral program, I engaged in several collaborative research projects with faculty at Oregon State and beyond, yielding
multiple co-authored peer-reviewed publications. I have presented at a variety of policy-related conferences, including the American Society
of Public Administration (ASPA), the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) and the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and plan to
continue building relationships in the eld through these organizations.
CURRENT RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
I am currently engaged in multiple projects at varying stages in the publication process, all of which reect my overall research mission. My
dissertation was focused on understanding the factors that have led to state-level policy changes related to employment and day services for
individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disability (I/DD). Since the early 2000s, most states have adopted policies that emphasize
competitive, integrated employment (CIE) as the priority outcome for individuals with I/DD, but have done so with substantial variation in policy
timing, type, content and magnitude. My dissertation used a case-based, mixed-method approach in the context of the Advocacy Coalition
Framework to address the broad research questions of why and how states adopted, or resisted adopting, CIE-focused policy during the last 15 to
20 years.
I found that shifts in the policy mix were associated with coalition-based activity and other subsystem conditions, including stakeholder
mobilization, strategic use of framing and narrative, and bureaucratic advocacy. However, the timing of policy change was related to antecedent
service levels and shifts in coalition membership. My dissertation yielded a single-authored publication in the Policy Studies Journal and a second
manuscript that is currently undergoing peer review.
My primary responsibility as a post-doctoral scholar in the OSU School of Social and Behavioral Sciences is to develop a Supplemental Poverty
Measure (SPM) for the State of Oregon using a combination of national datasets (American Community Survey and Current Population Survey)
and state-level administrative data. In the spirit of federal SPM developments, we are using these data to develop a more valid measure of
poverty in the state, which will enable us to measure how tax credits, income transfers and other subsidies (e.g., childcare) aect poverty in
dierent demographic groups. This project is being conducted in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Human Services and Employment
Department.
In addition to my post-doctoral responsibilities, I am engaged in several other collaborative policy-focused studies, including a comparative study
of asset poverty in the U.S. and Canada. It is being prepared for submission to a special issue of Social Policy and Administration, an ongoing
study of re-distributional institutions in poor rural and urban communities, an ongoing study of communities’ policy innovations in the wake of
extreme weather events and a nascent study of systematic use of narratives to inuence rearms regulation and immigration policies.
Finally, I am in the planning stages for a new project to examine the variation in timing and content of state-level Earned Income Tax Credit policy
adoption in the United States. I’m eager to bring my ongoing areas of inquiry as well as this track record of publication and consistent research
productivity to your department. Additionally, I believe my research focus and expertise compliment the ongoing social policy work that Dr.
Gonzalez and Dr. Warnick are conducting in disaggregating poverty demographic data. This intersection will yield fruitful collaborations that will
advance important societal work.
FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA
My future research portfolio will continue to explore the conditions under which policy and governance changes occur, the resources and
strategies used by policy actors to achieve policy objectives and the impacts of policy and governance changes. I am particularly interested
in contributing to scholarship that explores the development and impact of policy and governance innovations in the context of macro-level
changes, such as growing income inequality and climate change.
While the scholarly research interests described above are fairly “academic,” I also maintain a continued interest in collaborating with policy
actors through applied research contributions, including policy analysis and program evaluation, with the primary objective of producing policy-
relevant information for consumption by policymakers and the secondary objective of maintaining a close connection to the eld.