Sarah K. Cowan
Founder and Executive Director of the Cash Transfer Lab, Sarah K. Cowan is a social demographer and Assistant Professor of Sociology at New York University. Professor Cowan has researched, with Kiara Douds, the effect of annual Permanent Fund Dividend transfers in Alaska on childbearing and reproductive justice. That work was funded by the Economic Security Project. Her prior work examined abortion and people keeping secrets from each other. She has expertise in American fertility, social networks, and survey methodology. Prior to joining the NYU Department of Sociology, Sarah K. Cowan was a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Fellow at Columbia University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from UC Berkeley.
Erica Hobby
Assistant Director and Senior Research at the Cash Transfer Lab, Erica Hobby has a Master of Public Administration from NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Erica’s degree and research focus on public policy analysis and quantitative methods. In addition to working with the lab's operations and research, Erica's research explores the relationship between pregnancy intentions and infant, maternal, and early childhood outcomes. Erica also worked with Professor Cowan and Kiara Douds with their work on the Alaska PFD and reproductive justice as a research assistant at NYU.
Robert Pickett
Robert Pickett is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Cash Transfer Lab. Robert received his Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from UC Berkeley where he explored the interplay between quantitative methods and constructionist race theory. In the lab, Robert works on statistical approaches to identify the causal effects of the PFD.
Kiara Wyndham Douds
Kiara Wyndham Douds is a Sociology Ph.D. Candidate at New York University. Kiara researches the production of racial inequality in the United States. With Sarah K. Cowan, Kiara has examined the effect of PFD transfers in Alaska on reproductive inequalities. In their other work, Kiara focuses on the spatialized nature of racial inequality with a focus on suburban communities. Read more on their website.
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill is a Professor of Applied Statistics; Director of the Center for Practice and Research at the Intersection of Information, Society, and Methodology; and Co-Director of Applied Statistics for Social Science Research Masters Program at New York University. Professor Hill develops and evaluates methods that help us answer the causal questions that are vital to policy research and scientific development. In particular, she focuses on situations in which it is difficult or impossible to perform traditional randomized experiments, or when even seemingly pristine study designs are complicated by missing data or hierarchically structured data. Professor Hill is the author, along with Andrew Gelman, of Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models and Regression and Other Stories.
Hunter Meachum
Hunter Meachum grew up in her ancestral homelands in Southeast Alaska. She is Tlingit of the Eagle moiety and Kaagwaantaan from the Two Door House and the House on the Water. Hunter holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder and is currently studying public policy at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Most recently, Hunter was a legislative aide for Representative Sara Hannan at the Alaska State Legislature, where the issue of the Permanent Fund Dividend is extremely salient. Hunter is a Graduate Research Assistant at the Cash Transfer Lab.
Eden Min
Eden Min is a third-year student at NYU Liberal Studies and College of Arts and Science, where she majors in Sociology and minors in Politics, Math, American Sign Language, and Creative Writing. As a research assistant for the Cash Transfer Lab, she is currently focusing on the Expanded Child Tax Credit policy and Economic Impact Payments. Eden is passionately invested in various intersections of sociology with family, disability, race, gender, religion, and law.
Karyn Vilbig
Karyn Vilbig is a Graduate Research Assistant for the Cash Transfer Lab and a Sociology Ph.D. student at NYU Arts and Science. She primarily studies public opinion on tax and social policy.
Celine Thompson
Celine Thompson is a Program Assistant at the Cash Transfer Lab and the Administrative Aide for the NYU Arts and Science Sociology Department. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Human Development from the University at Albany and due to her interests in technology, recently completed certifications in software development and Google Data Analytics.
Amariah DeJesus
Amariah DeJesus is the Special Projects Analyst of the Cash Transfer Lab, Assistant to the Senior Associate Deans of the Faculty of Arts and Science, and a current graduate student pursuing a Master's Degree in Professional Writing from NYU’s School of Professional Studies. At the lab, Amariah handles duties in fiscal affairs, communications, and digital media.