Areas of research

Data-Driven Policy Analysis & Evidence-Based Practice

SP2’s Initiatives and Faculty use administrative data, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis to inform the future of social innovation and social policy.

Featured Centers

Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy

Headshot of Dr. Jacqueline Corcoran

FEATURED FACULTY

Jacqueline Corcoran, PhD

Professor; PhD, University of Texas at Austin, 1996. Mental health; clinical social work; evidence-based practice in social work; systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and meta-synthesis; strengths-based models.

Dennis Culhane

FEATURED FACULTY

Dennis P. Culhane, PhD

Professor; PhD, Boston College, 1990. Homelessness; housing policy; policy analysis research methods.

Abby Ross Headshot

FEATURED FACULTY

Abigail (Abby) M. Ross, LICSW, MPH, PhD

Associate Professor; PhD, Boston University. Intervention research, implementation science, mental health, interprofessional practice, public health social work, youth suicide prevention, social care integration, evidence-based practice.

Milan Abinader

FEATURED FACULTY

Millan AbiNader, LMSW, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, Boston University. Gender-based violence; intimate partner violence; intimate partner homicide; rural communities; community-level risk; vicarious trauma.

Penn Sp2 Headshots March 2024

FEATURED FACULTY

ChiaKo Hung, MA, MPA, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, Arizona State University. Nonprofit financial management, social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, fundraising management, collaborative governance, social equity, social impact.

Demarcus A. Jenkins

FEATURED FACULTY

DeMarcus A. Jenkins, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, University of California, Los Angeles. Education policy, housing policy, criminal/juvenile justice, school safety & discipline, gentrification, anti-Black racism, Critical Race Theory, social movements.

R. Jisung Park

FEATURED FACULTY

R. Jisung Park, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, Harvard University. Environmental economics; labor economics; climate change; economic inequality; policy evaluation.

Alice Xu

FEATURED FACULTY

Alice Xu, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, Harvard University. Inequality and social policy, urban and distributive politics, environmental politics, quantitative and spatial methods, Latin America, Global South.

Related News

Dennis Culhane speaks at a podium

Improving lives through data: SP2’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy boosts national impact through students and alumni

Like a number of SP2 students and alumni, Sharon Zanti, PhD in Social Welfare ’24, has taken a path that is interwoven with SP2’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP). An initiative co-founded by Professor Dennis Culhane, AISP has paved the way for state and local governments to better support residents by responsibly connecting data.

Grid of headshots shows Ram Cnaan, Jacqueline Corcoran, Johanna Greeson, Chao Guo, Femida Handy, Amy Hillier, Steven Marcus, Desmond Patton, and Phyllis Solomon

SP2 faculty among “World’s Top 2% Scientists”

Nine SP2 faculty are listed among the Stanford University-Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists for the past two years or on the basis of career-long data. The ranking is calculated with data representing academic citations and peer-reviewed journal publications.

Desmond Patton sits speaking with colleagues at a table. In the background, a screen reads

Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) among partner schools for Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy

The University of Pennsylvania today announced $10 million in funding dedicated to its new Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy. The Center will be housed in the Penn School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) and will operate in partnership with five other schools at Penn, including SP2.