Adrian Dobra, Tyler McCormick, Katherine Stovel, and Natalie Williams Awarded NSF and NIH Grants
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Affiliates Adrian Dobra, Tyler McCormick, Katherine Stovel, and Nathalie Williams—also affiliates at the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences—were recently awarded grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
- Dobra—Professor of Nursing and Statistics—and Williams—Associate Professor of International Studies and Sociology—were awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant titled “ATD: Geospatial Graphic Models of Human Response to Emergencies,” for a three year-project that will examine human behavior response patterns to emergencies using machine learning tools.
- Stovel, Associate Professor of Sociology,—along with Professor Jevin West at the Information School—received a two-year grant from the NSF titled “Echo Chambers in Science? The Impact of Academic Recommender Systems on the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge.” Stovel and West will explore how new search technologies affect scholars’ range of exposure to academic literature, and whether they have broadening or narrowing effects.
- McCormick, Assistant Professor of Statistics and Sociology, was awarded a five-year subcontract on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant “Verbal Autopsy: Reimagining Data & Automated Cause Assignment (using ALPHA Network data).” The project will focus on developing methods to assign causes to and describe the distribution of death using verbal autopsy methods.
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Katie Baird Explores How Number of Ballot Drop Boxes Influences Voting Behavior in Washington
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Affiliate Katie Bird, Associate Professor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics at UW Tacoma, co-authored a study that explores whether people will vote more with the addition of more ballot drop boxes, which is required by a new state law in Washington. The study —which Baird and her coauthors presented to the State Government, Elections, and IT Committee on October 27— compared voting behavior in 2015 to that in 2016, when the number of drop boxes increased from 10 to 43. The outcomes suggest that while there may be an increase in voter turnout with the addition of more boxes, it is not likely to be driven by typically low-turnout groups.
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Emily Williams Investigates Pharmaceutical Alcohol Use Disorder Treatments in VA Primary Care Clinics
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Affiliate Emily Williams, Associate Professor of Health Services, co-authored a recent article that examines factors that pose challenges for or aid in prescribing medications for alcohol use disorders (AUD), and beliefs among providers of primary care depending on their willingness to prescribe these medications. For this qualitative study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the authors interviewed 24 providers from five different Veterans Affairs clinics. Their findings indicate that lack of knowledge and experience, stigma around alcohol, and skepticism about using medications rather than addiction treatment are barriers to prescribing medications for AUD. On the other hand, support for prescribing AUD medications, training, and the presence of behavioral staff to aid in the follow-up process facilitated prescription.
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Scott Allard Addresses Myth About Poverty in Cities and Suburbs
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Affiliate Scott Allard was quoted in a recent Chicago Tribune article that addresses myths about housing-related issues, including gentrification, low-income housing, and poverty. In response to the misconception that poverty is greater in cities than it is in suburbs, Allard—Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance—contends that poverty has in fact been shifting to the latter. “The number of poor persons in suburban Chicago eclipsed the number in the City of Chicago in the last decade, and there are no signs of this trend reversing anytime soon. Seven of every ten suburban municipalities outside Chicago saw the number of poor residents at least double from 1990 to 2014,” he said.
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