Thomas MaCurdy - Senior Research Associate

Dr. Thomas MaCurdy is an internationally acclaimed labor economist and econometrician, as well as a Professor of Economics at Stanford University. His research includes a wide range of studies in the health and human services area, broadly defined as the entire system of public assistance for low-income working and non-working families. He has a rich expertise on policies in this area, including Medicaid, SCHIP, Medicare, AFDC/TANF, and SSI/SSP as well as the patterns and implications of multiple program participation. MaCurdy has in-depth experience in working with and analyzing large administrative data sets, including files from the Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, Food Stamps, and Unemployment Insurance programs. He has also done substantial work with large longitudinal survey data sets, including studies using the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the National Longitudinal Surveys, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the Health and Retirement Survey. Many of his recent projects have been conducted for government agencies for the purpose of improving their capacity for evaluating their programs using available administrative data.

Education:
B.A., Economics, University of Washington
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago

Selected Publications

Ursula M. Bischoff - Senior Research Associate

Ursula Bischoff, Senior Research Associate at Acumen, LLC, holds a joint appointment at the John Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University. Her work focuses on social welfare services administration, policy, planning, and research, with an emphasis on supporting the design and evaluation of integrated, community-based service delivery systems. She is currently working on Child Welfare Improvement, community youth development, and developmental disabilities risk management projects. Prior to joining SPHERE, Ursula led research and planning at the San Mateo County Human Services Agency, conducted research and taught at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a litigator with the City of New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Education:
B.A., English/Government, Franklin & Marshall College
J.D., Hofstra University School of Law
M.S.W., University of Pennsylvania, Social Work
Graduate Certificate in Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Arts and Sciences
Ph.D., Social Welfare, University of Pennsylvania, Arts and Sciences

Margaret (Peggy) O'Brien-Strain - Senior Research Associate

Peggy O'Brien-Strain has been a Research Associate for Acumen, LLC since the company was founded in 1996. Currently, she holds a joint appointment as a Senior Research Associate at Acumen and as a staff member at the Gardner Center at Stanford University. She also serves as an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where she also served as a Research Fellow from 1997 to 2001. A specialist on welfare reform in California, she has also written on the Earned Income Tax Credit, the minimum wage, the combined effects of public assistance programs, child support enforcement, and child care.

Education:
B.A., Economics, Swarthmore College
Ph.D., Economics, Stanford University

Selected Publications

Jonathan Wilwerding - Research Associate

Jonathan Wilwerding is a Research Associate at Acumen, LLC and a Research Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. His work primarily concerns issues in labor economics and policy. Prior to joining Acumen, he was Scientist and Associate at Abt Associates Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he engaged extensively in domestic and international health policy research. Before his career in social science, he held academic appointments in the Departments of Philosophy at University College London, and the University of California, where he taught courses in formal logic and moral and political philosophy.

Education:
B.A. summa cum laude, Philosophy, University of Minnesota
M.P.A, Public Policy, Harvard University
Ph.D., Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles