David Cantor, Vice President, Westat, has more than 25 years of experience in designing surveys and evaluating the impact of social policy in the areas of health, crime and victimization, social welfare and family leave. Dr. Cantor has designed data collection methods for major economic and social surveys and has published on a wide range of survey methodological topics, including nonresponse, panel conditioning, incentives, organizational surveys, and measurement error. He has served as Associate Chair and Chair of the Standards Committee, American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and as the Chair of the American Statistical Associations’s Committee of Law and Justice Statistics. As Co-Principal Investigator, he was part of a team of researchers that won the 2014 Policy Impact Award from AAPOR for work on measuring rape and sexual assault among juveniles in residential placement. He has been a lecturer in statistical methods at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Cantor is a research professor Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. In recognition of his contributions to the field, he has been named a Westat Senior Statistical Fellow and serves on the Statistical Fellows Committee, which provides consultation on important survey statistics issues and addresses recent advances in applied statistics. Dr. Cantor earned the Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Anita Chandra, Vice President and Director, RAND Social and Economic Well-Being, and senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Previously, she served as director of RAND Justice, Infrastructure and Environment and as director of RAND’s Behavioral and Policy Sciences Department. She leads studies on civic well-being and urban planning; community resilience and long-term disaster recovery; effects of military deployment; equity, health in all policies and advancing a culture of health; and child health and development. Throughout her career, Chandra has engaged government and nongovernmental partners to consider cross-sector solutions for improving community well-being and to build more robust systems, implementation and evaluation capacity. This work has taken many forms, including engaging with federal and local government agencies on building systems for emergency preparedness and resilience both in the U.S. and globally; partnering with private sector organizations to develop the science base around child systems; and collaborating with city governments and foundations to reform data systems and measure environmental sustainability, well-being, and civic transformation. Chandra has also partnered with community organizations to conduct broad-scale health and environmental needs assessments, to examine the integration of health and human service systems, and to determine how to address the needs of historically marginalized populations in human service systems. These projects have occurred in partnership with businesses, foundations, and other community organizations. Chandra earned a Dr.P.H. in population and family health sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dennis Culhane, Dana and Andrew Stone Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, and Senior Research Associate at the Center for Population Studies. Dr. Culhane served as Director of Research for the National Center on Homelessness among Veterans at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs from 2009 – 2018, and was Faculty co-Director for the Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML) after his involvement in the Early Warning Information System (EWIS) for New York City in 1996. He is a nationally recognized social science researcher with primary expertise in the field of homelessness. His homelessness work has positioned him as an early innovator in the use of administrative data for research and policy analysis, particularly for populations and program impacts which are difficult to assess and track. Culhane’s work has resulted in federal legislation requiring all cities and states to develop administrative data systems for tracking homeless services in order to receive HUD funding. His work has also been instrumental in a national shift in how cities address chronic homelessness and family homelessness. Culhane’s recent research includes studies of vulnerable youth and young adults, including those transitioning from foster care, juvenile justice, and residential treatment services. He also co-directs Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP), an initiative that promotes the development, use, and innovation of integrated data systems by states and localities for policy analysis and systems reform. Dr. Culhane earned the Ph.D. at Boston College.
Andrea DiGiovanni, Head of Strategic Projects, Neighbourlytics—a SaaS social analytics platform that helps city-makers understand, measure and benchmark the quality of life and wellbeing in cities. Since launching in 2017, Neighbourlytics has created data for more than 500 neighbourhoods across ten countries, sparking a global conversation about making wellbeing the new focus of city performance. As the Strategic Projects lead at Neighbourlytics, Andrea heads up Neighbourlytics’ Launch Cities program, working with city governments to create near real-time insights to measure and benchmark the quality of life in their municipality. Prior to joining Neighbourlytics, Andrea was the Director of Program Development for evolve24, leading development and launch of new analytic offerings with a focus on ‘Data for Good’ applications, including Wellbeing and Sustainability. She is co-inventor of a patent-pending analytic to measure population Subjective Wellbeing. Andrea has applied her experience in social science research, development, market strategy, and communications to design and manage solutions for innovative, technology-driven organizations in both the public and private sectors. Andrea is a graduate of New York University.
Rashida Richardson, Director of Policy Research, AI Now Institute at New York University, designs, implements, and coordinates AI Now’s research strategy and initiatives on the topics of law, policy, and civil rights. Rashida joined AI Now after working as Legislative Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of New York (NYCLU), where she led the organization’s work on privacy, technology, surveillance, and education issues. Prior to the NYCLU, she was a staff attorney at the Center for HIV Law and Policy, where she worked on a wide-range of HIV-related legal and policy issues nationally, and she previously worked at Facebook Inc. and HIP Investor in San Francisco. Rashida currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University, the Advisory Board of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, the Board of Directors of the College & Community Fellowship, and she is an affiliate and Advisory Board member of the Center for Critical Race + Digital Studies. She received a BA with honors from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University and a JD from Northeastern University School of Law.
Steven Romalewski, Director, CUNY Mapping Service, Center for Urban Research, City University of New York, joined CUNY in January 2006 to launch and direct the CUNY Mapping Service as a project of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY’s Graduate Center. The Mapping Service engages with foundations, public agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and other CUNY researchers to use spatial information and analysis techniques to develop and execute applied research projects. They specialize in online applications that provide intuitive access to powerful data sets, displayed visually through interactive maps and in other formats. He also teaches graduate-level GIS courses at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment. Prior to joining CUR, Romalewski co-founded and directed the Community Mapping Assistance Project (CMAP) at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). During its eight-year history, CMAP enabled dozens of nonprofit, philanthropic, and public service organizations to use computer mapping to visualize data, analyze information geographically, provide services, and otherwise take advantage of the growing power of online mapping systems. Romalewski earned an MS in urban planning from Columbia University where he was later awarded a Charles H. Revson Fellowship.
Ravi Shroff, Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics, Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities Department at New York University’s Steinhardt School, with a joint appointment at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP). He is also an affiliated researcher at the Stanford Computational Policy Lab and a member of the Machine Learning for Good Lab at NYU. Previously, he was a Senior Research Scientist at CUSP, a 2016-2017 fellow at the Data & Society Research Institute, and a postdoc in the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University. His research interests are broadly related to computational social science, and in particular the application of statistical and machine learning methods to a variety of urban issues. Current research projects include the use of interpretable models to inform pretrial detention decisions, statistical techniques to accurately measure gunfire-related crime, and predictive models in child welfare. Dr. Shroff studied mathematics at UC San Diego (M.S. and Ph.D.), applied urban science and informatics at CUSP (M.S.), and mathematics and economics at the University of Washington (B.S.).
David Cantor, Vice President, Westat, has more than 25 years of experience in designing surveys and evaluating the impact of social policy in the areas of health, crime and victimization, social welfare and family leave. Dr. Cantor has designed data collection methods for major economic and social surveys and has published on a wide range of survey methodological topics, including nonresponse, panel conditioning, incentives, organizational surveys, and measurement error. He has served as Associate Chair and Chair of the Standards Committee, American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and as the Chair of the American Statistical Associations’s Committee of Law and Justice Statistics. As Co-Principal Investigator, he was part of a team of researchers that won the 2014 Policy Impact Award from AAPOR for work on measuring rape and sexual assault among juveniles in residential placement. He has been a lecturer in statistical methods at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Cantor is a research professor Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. In recognition of his contributions to the field, he has been named a Westat Senior Statistical Fellow and serves on the Statistical Fellows Committee, which provides consultation on important survey statistics issues and addresses recent advances in applied statistics. Dr. Cantor earned the Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Anita Chandra, Vice President and Director, RAND Social and Economic Well-Being, and senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Previously, she served as director of RAND Justice, Infrastructure and Environment and as director of RAND’s Behavioral and Policy Sciences Department. She leads studies on civic well-being and urban planning; community resilience and long-term disaster recovery; effects of military deployment; equity, health in all policies and advancing a culture of health; and child health and development. Throughout her career, Chandra has engaged government and nongovernmental partners to consider cross-sector solutions for improving community well-being and to build more robust systems, implementation and evaluation capacity. This work has taken many forms, including engaging with federal and local government agencies on building systems for emergency preparedness and resilience both in the U.S. and globally; partnering with private sector organizations to develop the science base around child systems; and collaborating with city governments and foundations to reform data systems and measure environmental sustainability, well-being, and civic transformation. Chandra has also partnered with community organizations to conduct broad-scale health and environmental needs assessments, to examine the integration of health and human service systems, and to determine how to address the needs of historically marginalized populations in human service systems. These projects have occurred in partnership with businesses, foundations, and other community organizations. Chandra earned a Dr.P.H. in population and family health sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dennis Culhane, Dana and Andrew Stone Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, and Senior Research Associate at the Center for Population Studies. Dr. Culhane served as Director of Research for the National Center on Homelessness among Veterans at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs from 2009 – 2018, and was Faculty co-Director for the Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML) after his involvement in the Early Warning Information System (EWIS) for New York City in 1996. He is a nationally recognized social science researcher with primary expertise in the field of homelessness. His homelessness work has positioned him as an early innovator in the use of administrative data for research and policy analysis, particularly for populations and program impacts which are difficult to assess and track. Culhane’s work has resulted in federal legislation requiring all cities and states to develop administrative data systems for tracking homeless services in order to receive HUD funding. His work has also been instrumental in a national shift in how cities address chronic homelessness and family homelessness. Culhane’s recent research includes studies of vulnerable youth and young adults, including those transitioning from foster care, juvenile justice, and residential treatment services. He also co-directs Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP), an initiative that promotes the development, use, and innovation of integrated data systems by states and localities for policy analysis and systems reform. Dr. Culhane earned the Ph.D. at Boston College.
Andrea DiGiovanni, Head of Strategic Projects, Neighbourlytics—a SaaS social analytics platform that helps city-makers understand, measure and benchmark the quality of life and wellbeing in cities. Since launching in 2017, Neighbourlytics has created data for more than 500 neighbourhoods across ten countries, sparking a global conversation about making wellbeing the new focus of city performance. As the Strategic Projects lead at Neighbourlytics, Andrea heads up Neighbourlytics’ Launch Cities program, working with city governments to create near real-time insights to measure and benchmark the quality of life in their municipality. Prior to joining Neighbourlytics, Andrea was the Director of Program Development for evolve24, leading development and launch of new analytic offerings with a focus on ‘Data for Good’ applications, including Wellbeing and Sustainability. She is co-inventor of a patent-pending analytic to measure population Subjective Wellbeing. Andrea has applied her experience in social science research, development, market strategy, and communications to design and manage solutions for innovative, technology-driven organizations in both the public and private sectors. Andrea is a graduate of New York University.
Rashida Richardson, Director of Policy Research, AI Now Institute at New York University, designs, implements, and coordinates AI Now’s research strategy and initiatives on the topics of law, policy, and civil rights. Rashida joined AI Now after working as Legislative Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of New York (NYCLU), where she led the organization’s work on privacy, technology, surveillance, and education issues. Prior to the NYCLU, she was a staff attorney at the Center for HIV Law and Policy, where she worked on a wide-range of HIV-related legal and policy issues nationally, and she previously worked at Facebook Inc. and HIP Investor in San Francisco. Rashida currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University, the Advisory Board of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, the Board of Directors of the College & Community Fellowship, and she is an affiliate and Advisory Board member of the Center for Critical Race + Digital Studies. She received a BA with honors from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University and a JD from Northeastern University School of Law.
Steven Romalewski, Director, CUNY Mapping Service, Center for Urban Research, City University of New York, joined CUNY in January 2006 to launch and direct the CUNY Mapping Service as a project of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY’s Graduate Center. The Mapping Service engages with foundations, public agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and other CUNY researchers to use spatial information and analysis techniques to develop and execute applied research projects. They specialize in online applications that provide intuitive access to powerful data sets, displayed visually through interactive maps and in other formats. He also teaches graduate-level GIS courses at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment. Prior to joining CUR, Romalewski co-founded and directed the Community Mapping Assistance Project (CMAP) at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). During its eight-year history, CMAP enabled dozens of nonprofit, philanthropic, and public service organizations to use computer mapping to visualize data, analyze information geographically, provide services, and otherwise take advantage of the growing power of online mapping systems. Romalewski earned an MS in urban planning from Columbia University where he was later awarded a Charles H. Revson Fellowship.
Ravi Shroff, Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics, Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities Department at New York University’s Steinhardt School, with a joint appointment at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP). He is also an affiliated researcher at the Stanford Computational Policy Lab and a member of the Machine Learning for Good Lab at NYU. Previously, he was a Senior Research Scientist at CUSP, a 2016-2017 fellow at the Data & Society Research Institute, and a postdoc in the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University. His research interests are broadly related to computational social science, and in particular the application of statistical and machine learning methods to a variety of urban issues. Current research projects include the use of interpretable models to inform pretrial detention decisions, statistical techniques to accurately measure gunfire-related crime, and predictive models in child welfare. Dr. Shroff studied mathematics at UC San Diego (M.S. and Ph.D.), applied urban science and informatics at CUSP (M.S.), and mathematics and economics at the University of Washington (B.S.).