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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

CSDE Welcomes New Staff Members to the Administrative Core

CSDE is thrilled to announce that three new staff members have joined CSDE’s Administrative Core in the last several months. Gianna Cannataro is CSDE’s new Program Coordinator, Belinda Sachs is CSDE’s new Grants Manager in collaboration with the College of Built Environment’s Office of Research, and Angie Thai is CSDE’s new Budget Analyst Lead.

Gianna Cannataro also joined CSDE in April 2020 as a Program Coordinator. She graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Resource Management from the University of Washington in 2019. While attending school, Gianna worked as a Student Assistant at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences where she helped with various administrative duties. At CSDE, Gianna assists with purchasing, budget reconciliation, coordinating travel, and many other tasks. Prior to her work and schooling at UW, Gianna studied Merchandise Management at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and worked as a retail manager at a recycled clothing store chain. In her spare time, Gianna enjoys volunteering at the PAWS Wildlife Center, thrift store shopping, and hanging out with her husband and two cats.

Belinda Sachs joined CSDE in April 2020 as a new Grants Manager, focusing on pre-award grant proposal preparation. Hiring a new grants manager was made possible through a new partnership between the College of Built Environment and CSDE. Prior to joining CSDE in 2020, Belinda was a Fiscal Specialist with the UW Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute (2002-20), where her pre- and post-award responsibilities include assisting with grant proposal preparation and monitoring budgets for compliance. Belinda is also the former Director of Development for Coffee House Press in Minneapolis. Belinda’s extracurricular activities include fundraising for the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation as a team captain for Walk MS, and for the American Cancer Society as a team captain for Making Strides against Breast Cancer.

Angie Thai joined CSDE in June 2020 in the Budget/Fiscal Analyst Lead role. She received a Master of Accountancy degree from Gonzaga University. Prior to her position with CSDE, Angie worked at UW’s School of Nursing as a Fiscal/Budget Analyst. Her professional experience at UW includes: payroll, fiscal management and budgeting. At CSDE, she is the contact person for payroll, and post award grant management. In her free time, Angie enjoys cooking, baking, and spending time with her son.

Raftery Joins Panel to Discuss COVID Data for Decision Makers

On Thursday August 6, a panel of behavioral and social scientists, including CSDE Affiliate Adrian Raftery, will present on how data about COVID 19 might be used to make program and policy decisions. The webinar is organized by the Societal Experts Action Network of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.  The webinar will answer the question – how can decision makers evaluate measurements and use COVID-19 data to understand the spread of the disease in their communities?  You can register for the program here.

Apply to Attend the First PAA Applied Demography Conference!

PAA announces Applied Demography Conference, which will be hosted in conjunction with the Committee on Applied Demography. During these challenging times, the work of applied demographers is more important than ever! PAA  is providing this tremendous opportunity to more effectively engage our applied demography community. The first Applied Demography Conference will take place virtually February 2-4, 2021. If you are interested in serving on the Program Committee, please fill out this form by August 5.

Join #PAA2020 Webinar Series: Data Collection during the Pandemic

On August 18 @11:30am (EST), PAA will hosts its fourth webinar in its ongoing PAA2020 programming.  This webinar will focus on COVID-19 data collection challenges in countries of the Global South. Absence of sampling frame, poor quality of telephone and internet connectivity and absence of civil registration systems has led to a reliance on household surveys as the primary mode for obtaining demographic data. The spreading pandemic has blocked this avenue for gathering data precisely at a time when data are most needed. Researchers have responded by undertaking telephone surveys, video interviews and drawing samples via Facebook. This panel brings together researchers working in diverse geographies to discuss new modes of data collection, the opportunities they offer and the ethical challenges they pose, as researchers try to work with respondents living under highly stressful conditions.

Join Asian Population Association/NUS CFPR Webinar: Asian Families Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

On August 6 (4.00pm to 5.30pm (SGT)), the Asian Population Association and NUS Center for Family and Population Research are hosting a webinar. The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted unprecedented pressure on many institutions including the health care systems, schools, government, markets, and law. Family, as the basic socioeconomic unit of the society, bears the brunt of the multiple stressors caused by the disruptions to these institutions. The webinar will explore the impact of COVID-19 on families in Asia-Pacific region focusing on the vulnerabilities of women,  children, and older adults as they experience morbidity, mortality, migration, economic recession, and school closure.

Chan Co-authors Book Examining Migration in China

CSDE Affiliate Kam Wing Chan and co-author Yuan Ren recently published Children of Migrants in China (Routledge 2020). The book illustrates how unprecedented urbanization and internal migration have resulted in large-scale family separation in China. The authors reveal that more than 100 million children grow up in unstable families, a majority of whom suffer from prolonged separation from their parents owing to migratory upheaval. The analyses explains the impact of China’s internal migration on children and recommends policies to address problems from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

Data for Policy Conference, Networking Volunteer Opportunities

Check out these networking volunteer opportunities for the September Data for Policy conference.We are recruiting a team of volunteers to assist with the running of the 5th Data for Policy International Conference, which is taking place virtually between 15th and 17th September 2020.  This is an opportunity to use your skills to help us deliver an interdisciplinary conference, happening online for the first time, and to network with some key people and organisations working at the interface of data science and policy.  

*NEW* Population Health Initiative COVID-19 Call for Proposals

The Population Health Initiative has launched its third call for rapid response COVID 19 pilot grants  due to PHI by July 31. These pilot grants are targeted towards health equity research and partnerships with communities of color.  CSDE is happy to support these initiatives with in-kind resources for research consultations and time, logistics, lab help, survey development, or access to computing resources.  We can provide a letter of support that values that support for you, as part of a match.  In some cases, we may be able to provide dollar support, up to $5,000, if the grant also aligns with our center grant mission. Several of the PHI goals also coincide with our research mission, including expanding reporting of racial and demographic data, improving understanding of the variation in infection by race and ethnicity, improving understanding in death and excess mortality by race and ethnicity, understanding the impact of the pandemic’s impact on housing, improving our understanding of the pandemic’s economic impact, etc. Please submit your requests to our seed grant portal.  You may also contact Sara Curran or Steve Goodreau with your requests.

The Population Health Initiative has launched its third call for rapid response COVID 19 pilot grants  due to PHI by July 31. These pilot grants are targeted towards health equity research and partnerships with communities of color.  CSDE is happy to support these initiatives with in-kind resources for research consultations and time, logistics, lab help, survey development, or access to computing resources.  We can provide a letter of support that values that support for you, as part of a match.  In some cases, we may be able to provide dollar support, up to $5,000, if the grant also aligns with our center grant mission. Several of the PHI goals also coincide with our research mission, including expanding reporting of racial and demographic data, improving understanding of the variation in infection by race and ethnicity, improving understanding in death and excess mortality by race and ethnicity, understanding the impact of the pandemic’s impact on housing, improving our understanding of the pandemic’s economic impact, etc. Please submit your requests to our seed grant portal.  You may also contact Sara Curran or Steve Goodreau with your requests.

The purpose of this funding call is to rapidly accelerate, or jumpstart, novel research designed to better understand, mitigate, or reverse the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color to improve population health equity. The call is broad in scope, and applications can propose research projects and interventions in areas including, some of the areas identified by PHI also align with CSDE’s research mission to advance population science, which we list below:

  • Expanding reporting of racial demographic data for morbidity, mortality, and other areas of disparity
  • Improving understanding of the variation in infection by race and ethnicity
  • Improving the understanding of the variation in death and excess mortality by race and ethnicity
  • Bolstering access to, and communication of, culturally appropriate, evidence-based information
  • Understanding the pandemic’s impact on housing and rental markets
  • Improving the accessibility of testing for communities of color
  • Improving the understanding of the variation in economic impact – such as unemployment, earnings, and so forth – by race and ethnicity
  • Understanding the impact of the pandemic on youth employment

Project ideas can be proposed that will either (1) quickly bring to bear new knowledge, or (2) that will allow work on a larger, longer-term project to begin immediately as the project team continues to seek the necessary external funding for the bigger component. Applicants are required to propose projects that (1) address community-identified needs and (2) that were developed in partnership with a domestic or international community-based organization as the initiative views such partnerships as being critical to improving health and well-being. Specifically, we are seeking projects that work WITH a community partner to identify needs and design the project rather than projects that are developed by researchers and then “pitched” to potential partners.