IPR Welcomes Esteemed Sociologist from Johns Hopkins to Northwestern 

Alumna Stefanie DeLuca returns to campus as IPR’s inaugural visiting scholar 

Evanston, Ill. – Johns Hopkins sociologist Stefanie DeLuca, one of the nation’s leading experts on housing mobility, vouchers, and policy, will join Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research (IPR) as its inaugural visiting scholar in May 2025.   

IPR visiting scholars are outstanding researchers who examine critical social policy issues and have proven track records of connecting with policymakers, community organizations, and the public.  

“I could not be more excited to welcome Stefanie DeLuca, an IPR alum and acclaimed researcher, who will bring insights on how her qualitative methodological approach is used to make real world impact on housing inequality,” said IPR Director Andrew Papachristos, the John G. Searle Professor of Sociology.  

DeLuca (PhD 2002) directs the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University, where she examines how housing, neighborhood, and education shape youth and family outcomes. She is also an innovator in the development of qualitative research methods that enrich quantitative study results.  

Currently, she is working with economist Raj Chetty as a research principal at Harvard’s Opportunity Insights, a research and policy institute that uses big data to study the science of economic opportunity. A recent collaboration seeks to understand how the federal public housing program HOPE VI might affect future earnings.  

“We can move forward in helping people access opportunity through seemingly small investments in already existing voucher programs,” DeLuca said at an IPR research briefing in October where she was a panelist. “The way we get there is through mixed-methods, interdisciplinary research designed to help us translate science to policy.” 

From May 12–16 on Northwestern’s Evanston campus, DeLuca will meet with IPR faculty and students, sharing her research and shedding light on how she successfully conveys her research findings to those in the policy world. She will also explore potential collaborations with faculty and present some of her latest findings on Monday, May 12, from noon to 1 p.m. More information about her colloquium will be coming soon. 

No stranger to Northwestern and IPR, DeLuca received her PhD from the University’s School of Education and Social Policy in its Human Development and Social Policy (HDSP) program in 2002. She was also an IPR graduate research assistant during her doctoral program, working with IPR education researcher James Rosenbaum and then-IPR economist Greg Duncan on seminal studies of the Gautreaux and the Moving to Opportunity housing programs. 

“The support and training I received as an IPR fellow and HDSP doctoral student uniquely shaped me as a scholar who can design rigorous policy-relevant research informed by the challenges people face in their everyday lives,” DeLuca said.  

“Reflecting all these years later, I can see the leverage my training gave me to shape a career-long research agenda at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary and mixed-methods policy science,” she recalled. “I am eager to return so I can continue the tradition of my learning from IPR faculty fellows and students and also share insights about how mixed methods research can translate into policy change.”  

Said Papachristos, “IPR’s Visiting Scholars Program is an exciting step toward expanding our footprint, opening collaborations with outstanding scholars from other institutions, providing our community with learning opportunities from the best policy researchers in the nation, and fostering long-lasting connections.” 

Photo credit: Leslie Kossoff

 
About IPR’s Visiting Scholars Program

Launching in May, the program brings exceptional researchers to Northwestern who excel in science outreach, fostering collaboration and intellectual exchange with IPR faculty and students. For more information about the program and our inaugural visiting scholar Stefanie DeLuca, visit ipr.northwestern.edu/who-we-are/visiting-programs/visiting-scholars-program.

Published: January 27, 2025.