Announcing 2016-17 Dissertation Awards

October 6, 2016

The Dean and the Dissertation Award Selection Committee recently announced the Pardee RAND Dissertation Award recipients for academic year 2016-17. Thanks to the School's generous supporters and friends, Pardee RAND was able to provide 26 awards totaling nearly $350,000 across a range of important policy topics.

John M. Cazier Award in Sustainability ($35,000)

$10,000 to Tobi Oluwatola for his work on Let There Be Light: Reducing Energy Poverty in India in the Face of Climate Change. Committee: Aimee Curtright, Chair; Rafiq Dossani, Shanthi Nataraj.

$25,000 to Lauren Kendrick for her work on Regulating Nitrogen Pollution in Air and Water from Animal Waste in the Hog Farming Industry. Committee: Craig Bond, Chair, Debra Knopman, John Raffensperger

The Doris Dong Award ($14,725)

$14,725 to Melody Harvey for her work on Further Understanding Financial Choice Among Financially Independent College Students. Committee: Katie Carman, Chair, Trey Miller, Jeremy Burke.

The JL Foundation Awards (via Jim Lovelace) ($73,800)

$24,600 to Jeremy Boback for his work on Understanding the Adoption of Wellbeing as a Policy Goal and the Potential for Diffusion among American Cities. Committee: Chris Nelson, Chair; Katie Sieck.

$24,600 to Prodyumna Goutam for his work on Trade, Gender and Child Health Investments: Evidence from Bangladesh. Chair, Shanthi Nataraj; Krishna Kumar, Peter Glick.

$24,600 to Melissa Felician for her work on Assessing the Wellbeing Effects of Supportive Housing in LA County. Committee: Sarah Hunter, Chair; Dmitry Khodyakov, Bill Pitkin.

The Dana G. Mead Dissertation Awards ($22,000)

$7000 to Yan Wang for her work onEvaluating the Impact of Medicaid's Balancing Incentive Program on Health Care Utilization and Expenditures among Older Adults. Committee: Jeanne Ringel, Chair.

$15,000 to Eduardo Marquez-Pena for his work onApplied Dynamic General Equilibrium Model and Robust Decision Making analysis for assessing Mexico’s fiscal and oil reforms. Committee: Rob Lempert, Chair; Steven Popper, Paco Guil Diaz (invited).

The Pardee Dissertation Awards for Global Human Progress ($50,000)

$20,000 to Mahlet Woldetsadik for her work on The Cost of Sexual Violence and its Transgenerational Impact in Conflict-Affected African Countries. Chair: Glenn Wagner; Jeanne Ringel, Ragnhild Nordas, Rhoda Wanyenze.

$20,000 to Adeyemi Okunogbe for his work on Improving Financial Access to Healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Empirical Evaluation of Community-based Health Insurance. Committee: Peter Hussey, Chair, Gery Ryan, Edward Okeke.

$10,000 to Bill Gelfeld for his work on Preventing the Violation of Term Limits in Low and Middle-Income Countries. Committee: Nick Burger, Chair; Chris Paul, Frank Fukuyama.

The Eugene and Maxine Rosenfeld Dissertation Awards ($11,000)

$5500 to Kun Gu for her work on Demystifying the Social Network Effect on Adoption Agricultural Technology: Turning a Black Box into a Policy Tool. Committee: Krishna Kumar, Chair; Alexander Rothenberg, Hank Green.

$5,500 to Gulrez Azhar for his work on Indian Summer: Three Essays on Heatwave Vulnerability, Estimation and Adaptation. Committee: Gery Ryan, Chair.

The Anne and James Rothenberg Dissertation Awards ($79,135)

$10,000 to David Manheim for his work on Improving Decision Support Using Bayesian Networks. Committee: Paul Davis, Chair, Steven Popper, Katheryn Laskey

$10,000 to Ervant Maksabedian for his work on The Effects of MHPAEA on Access to Medication Assisted Treatments for Opioid Use Disorders. Committee: Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Chair; Priscillia Hunt, David Powell.

$10,000 to Eric Apaydin for his work on Physician Satisfaction in the United States. Committee: Peggy Chen, Chair; Gery Ryan, Michael Tutty.

$10,000 to Dan Han for her work on Evaluating the Impact of 340B Drug Pricing Program on Drug Utilization and Patient Outcomes. Committee: David Powell, Chair; Mireille Jacobson, Andrew Mulcahy.

$10,000 to Gabriel Weinberger for his work on Estimating Effects from Incarceration at the Neighborhood Level to Inform Better Social Policy. Committee: Rosalie Pacula, Chair.

$14,135 to Amanda Edelman for her work on Understanding Policy Diffusion Through Major U.S. Cities. Committee: Dave Baiocchi, Chair; Luke Matthews, Bruce Desmarais.

$15,000 to Haijing (Crystal) Huang for her work on Health Behaviors in Developing Countries: Efficacy of and Barriers to Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS. Committee: Sebastian Linnemayr, Chair; Peter Glick, Roland Sturm.

The Arthur S. Wasserman Prize for Reducing Social and Economic Disparities ($10,000)

$5000 to Andriy Bega for his work on Policy Options for Universal Basic Income. C. Richard Neu, Chair.

$5000 to Meg Chamberlin for her work on Exploring Barriers to Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment. Lisa Meredith, Chair.

The Susan Way-Smith Memorial Dissertation Grant in Education ($13,000)

$5000 to Emilio Chavez-Herrerias for his work on Designing and Developing Education Information Systems to Improve Educational Outcomes and Reduce Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Public School Systems. Chair, Susan Gates.

$8000 to Cameron Wright for his work on Choose Wisely: A Study of College Major Choice and its Effects on Graduation, Time to Degree, and Student Debt, Committee: Charles Goldman, Chair, Trey Miller, Dermot Forde.

The James Q. Wilson Dissertation Fellowship ($34,800)

$17,400 to Maya Buenaventura for her work on Treatment Not Custody: Process and Impact Evaluation of Santa Monica's Homeless Community Court. Committee: Sarah Hunter, Chair; James Anderson, Matt Cefalu.

$17,400 to Claire O’Hanlon for her work on Three Essays on the Impacts of Health Care Consolidation. Committee: Deborah Freund, Chair; Chapin White, Stephen Shortell.