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Management Team
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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
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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
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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
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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
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