AP-NORC Center Experts

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Jennifer Benz

Director
AP-NORC
Phone: (978) 595-7364

Jennifer Benz is the Director of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Benz is a political scientist whose research focuses on the connection between public policy and citizen engagement. Benz’s research includes numerous studies measuring awareness, understanding, and perceptions of public policy issues among the general public and targeted constituencies. She has a successful track record of distilling and packaging complex research for different audiences including journalists, policy makers, and the mass public.

Benz has managed and conducted survey research on a variety of topics including the public’s priorities and attitudes toward government, race and ethnicity, public health and health care, economic issues, news and media, international relations and defense, and environmental and energy policy. With training and experience in political science, social psychology, and public health, Benz’s research uses an interdisciplinary approach in both theory and method, and much of her research complements survey research with qualitative and experimental methods. Benz has also published research on the relationships between interest organizations, PACs, and public policy, with a particular focus on state-level politics and policy. Prior to joining the AP-NORC Center, Benz worked as a Research Scientist for NORC’s Public Health research department where her project work focuses on issues in health disparities, access to primary care, and the dissemination and evaluation of comparative effectiveness research (CER).

Her research has been published by Georgetown University Press, Health Affairs, State Politics and Policy, Publius, and the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, among others.

Jennifer Benz

Director
AP-NORC
(978) 595-7364

Jennifer Benz is the Director of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Benz is a political scientist whose research focuses on the connection between public policy and citizen engagement. Benz’s research includes numerous studies measuring awareness, understanding, and perceptions of public policy issues among the general public and targeted constituencies. She has a successful track record of distilling and packaging complex research for different audiences including journalists, policy makers, and the mass public.

Benz has managed and conducted survey research on a variety of topics including the public’s priorities and attitudes toward government, race and ethnicity, public health and health care, economic issues, news and media, international relations and defense, and environmental and energy policy. With training and experience in political science, social psychology, and public health, Benz’s research uses an interdisciplinary approach in both theory and method, and much of her research complements survey research with qualitative and experimental methods. Benz has also published research on the relationships between interest organizations, PACs, and public policy, with a particular focus on state-level politics and policy. Prior to joining the AP-NORC Center, Benz worked as a Research Scientist for NORC’s Public Health research department where her project work focuses on issues in health disparities, access to primary care, and the dissemination and evaluation of comparative effectiveness research (CER).

Her research has been published by Georgetown University Press, Health Affairs, State Politics and Policy, Publius, and the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, among others.

Jennifer Hamilton

Senior Vice President
Education & Child Development
Phone: (312) 201-6836

Jennifer is an evaluation methodologist who leads teams to produce actionable results that inform decision-making. As the senior vice president of the Education & Child Development department at NORC, Jennifer has dedicated over 30 years to enhancing the social, academic, and economic outcomes of students through rigorous research and innovative methodologies.

Jennifer collaborates closely with policymakers, practitioners, and other education stakeholders to ensure that research addresses their needs, ultimately contributing to a more efficient education system. Her deep knowledge and methodological skills ensure that projects are conducted with the highest degree of rigor, leading to more effective and streamlined educational practices.

As a principal investigator, Jennifer oversees a variety of research studies from kindergarten to post-secondary education. She is leading a project for the Gates Foundation to create a research and development ecosystem that helps educators access high-quality instructional materials, thereby improving academic outcomes. Additionally, Jennifer is evaluating civics curricula to assess their impact on high school students’ civic learning and engagement, which is crucial for developing an informed and active citizenry.

Jennifer’s work emphasizes the role of education in workforce development and its economic outcomes. By improving educational practices and outcomes, her research supports the preparation of students for successful careers, contributing to a stronger economy. Before joining NORC, Jennifer was a senior scientist at Westat, where she enhanced the rigor and validity of numerous education studies. She remains driven by her desire to make a positive impact in education through research, collaboration, and a focus on efficiency and economic development.

Jennifer Hamilton

Senior Vice President
Education & Child Development
(312) 201-6836

Jennifer is an evaluation methodologist who leads teams to produce actionable results that inform decision-making. As the senior vice president of the Education & Child Development department at NORC, Jennifer has dedicated over 30 years to enhancing the social, academic, and economic outcomes of students through rigorous research and innovative methodologies.

Jennifer collaborates closely with policymakers, practitioners, and other education stakeholders to ensure that research addresses their needs, ultimately contributing to a more efficient education system. Her deep knowledge and methodological skills ensure that projects are conducted with the highest degree of rigor, leading to more effective and streamlined educational practices.

As a principal investigator, Jennifer oversees a variety of research studies from kindergarten to post-secondary education. She is leading a project for the Gates Foundation to create a research and development ecosystem that helps educators access high-quality instructional materials, thereby improving academic outcomes. Additionally, Jennifer is evaluating civics curricula to assess their impact on high school students’ civic learning and engagement, which is crucial for developing an informed and active citizenry.

Jennifer’s work emphasizes the role of education in workforce development and its economic outcomes. By improving educational practices and outcomes, her research supports the preparation of students for successful careers, contributing to a stronger economy. Before joining NORC, Jennifer was a senior scientist at Westat, where she enhanced the rigor and validity of numerous education studies. She remains driven by her desire to make a positive impact in education through research, collaboration, and a focus on efficiency and economic development.

Jennifer Titus

Principal Research Director
Health Sciences
Phone: (312) 759-4254

Jen is a principal research director in the Health Sciences department at NORC. She is a versatile research leader with over 20 years of experience directing data collection, analysis, dissemination, and technical assistance efforts for federal and other clients. She leads teams of researchers and data scientists to synthesize health information from a range of sources, including survey, administrative, and real-world health care data, to create high-quality data products, reports, and visualizations. She develops strategies to disseminate timely and policy-relevant findings. She leverages her expertise in research methods and the social and behavioral sciences, training in epidemiology, and background in community health to lead the development of user-friendly guidance and technical assistance to researchers and clinicians.

Jen serves as associate project director for the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), where she is responsible for providing oversight for data acquisition, data processing, research and analytics, dissemination, and technical assistance. In addition, she managed NORC’s work with Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to implement and conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention, a multi-year quality improvement program to reduce healthcare-associated infections in hospitals and long-term care facilities throughout the United States.

Jen previously led analytics, dissemination, and user support for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Under her leadership, the MCBS released an expansive suite of resources for data users, including innovative products such as the MCBS Chartbook, which was recognized with a CMS Operational Excellence Award for its importance in increasing transparency, and the MCBS Interactives Data Tool, which won an Association of Public Data Users (APDU) Data Viz Award. Jen has also directed studies on health topics for The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including surveys focusing on long-term care and caregiving, medical errors and patient safety, healthy aging, and obesity.

Prior to NORC, Jen coordinated academic research studies on behavioral health funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for the Division of Prevention and Community Research at Yale University’s School of Medicine and at the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She started her career as an outreach worker for a community-based health organization.

Jennifer Titus

Principal Research Director
Health Sciences
(312) 759-4254

Jen is a principal research director in the Health Sciences department at NORC. She is a versatile research leader with over 20 years of experience directing data collection, analysis, dissemination, and technical assistance efforts for federal and other clients. She leads teams of researchers and data scientists to synthesize health information from a range of sources, including survey, administrative, and real-world health care data, to create high-quality data products, reports, and visualizations. She develops strategies to disseminate timely and policy-relevant findings. She leverages her expertise in research methods and the social and behavioral sciences, training in epidemiology, and background in community health to lead the development of user-friendly guidance and technical assistance to researchers and clinicians.

Jen serves as associate project director for the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), where she is responsible for providing oversight for data acquisition, data processing, research and analytics, dissemination, and technical assistance. In addition, she managed NORC’s work with Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to implement and conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention, a multi-year quality improvement program to reduce healthcare-associated infections in hospitals and long-term care facilities throughout the United States.

Jen previously led analytics, dissemination, and user support for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Under her leadership, the MCBS released an expansive suite of resources for data users, including innovative products such as the MCBS Chartbook, which was recognized with a CMS Operational Excellence Award for its importance in increasing transparency, and the MCBS Interactives Data Tool, which won an Association of Public Data Users (APDU) Data Viz Award. Jen has also directed studies on health topics for The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including surveys focusing on long-term care and caregiving, medical errors and patient safety, healthy aging, and obesity.

Prior to NORC, Jen coordinated academic research studies on behavioral health funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for the Division of Prevention and Community Research at Yale University’s School of Medicine and at the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She started her career as an outreach worker for a community-based health organization.

Jens Ludwig

Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor
University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy

Jens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, codirector of the Education Lab, and codirector of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s working group on the economics of crime.

His current work focuses on how behavioral science and data science can help solve social problems. He helped found the Crime Lab and the Education Lab to work closely with government agencies to turn these insights into social change out in the real world. Examples of real-world impact include studies of promising social and educational programs that have led to millions of dollars of public sector resources being re-allocated to more effective, evidence-based strategies, working with the Chicago Police Department to implement data-driven management changes that helped substantially reduce gun violence without increasing arrests, and partnership with the Mayor’s Office in New York City to help build and implement a new pretrial risk tool as part of the city’s goal to close Riker’s Island.

Crime Lab and Education Lab projects have been featured in national news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, PBS News Hour, and National Public Radio. In 2014, the Crime Lab was the recipient of a $1 million MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, the organizational equivalent of the foundation’s “genius prize.” Ludwig’s research has been published in leading scientific journals in numerous disciplines, including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Sociology. He is coauthor with Philip Cook of Gun Violence: The Real Costs (Oxford University Press, 2000), coeditor with Cook of Evaluating Gun Policy (Brookings Institution Press, 2003), and coeditor with Cook and Justin McCray of Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

Ludwig received his BA in economics from Rutgers College and his MA and PhD in economics from Duke University. He was previously a professor of public policy at Georgetown University. He is currently on the editorial board of the American Economic Review. In 2012 he was elected vice president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). In 2006 he was awarded APPAM’s David N. Kershaw Prize for Contributions to Public Policy by Age 40. In 2012 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.

Jens Ludwig

Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor
University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy

Jens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, codirector of the Education Lab, and codirector of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s working group on the economics of crime.

His current work focuses on how behavioral science and data science can help solve social problems. He helped found the Crime Lab and the Education Lab to work closely with government agencies to turn these insights into social change out in the real world. Examples of real-world impact include studies of promising social and educational programs that have led to millions of dollars of public sector resources being re-allocated to more effective, evidence-based strategies, working with the Chicago Police Department to implement data-driven management changes that helped substantially reduce gun violence without increasing arrests, and partnership with the Mayor’s Office in New York City to help build and implement a new pretrial risk tool as part of the city’s goal to close Riker’s Island.

Crime Lab and Education Lab projects have been featured in national news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, PBS News Hour, and National Public Radio. In 2014, the Crime Lab was the recipient of a $1 million MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, the organizational equivalent of the foundation’s “genius prize.” Ludwig’s research has been published in leading scientific journals in numerous disciplines, including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Sociology. He is coauthor with Philip Cook of Gun Violence: The Real Costs (Oxford University Press, 2000), coeditor with Cook of Evaluating Gun Policy (Brookings Institution Press, 2003), and coeditor with Cook and Justin McCray of Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

Ludwig received his BA in economics from Rutgers College and his MA and PhD in economics from Duke University. He was previously a professor of public policy at Georgetown University. He is currently on the editorial board of the American Economic Review. In 2012 he was elected vice president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). In 2006 he was awarded APPAM’s David N. Kershaw Prize for Contributions to Public Policy by Age 40. In 2012 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.

John Roman

Director of Center on Public Safety & Justice
Economics, Justice, and Society
Phone: 202-695-0518

John is a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice & Society department at NORC at the University of Chicago where he also directs the Center on Public Safety and Justice. His research focuses on the economics of innovative crime and justice policies and programs, cost-benefit methodology, public private partnerships and systems reforms, including justice system interactions with substance abuse, public health, adolescent development, housing, workforce development, and education. Dr. Roman has conducted research on behalf of numerous federal agencies, including the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, state and local governments, and private foundations. In that capacity, he served as the Visiting Science Director at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (2017 – 2018).

John has served as the principal investigator for more than three dozen projects funded by federal and local governments and national and local philanthropies. Over the last three years, he led a task force of leading subject matter experts convened to investigate the comprehensiveness of the US firearms data infrastructure, with particular attention to the overlap of public health and criminal justice data. He is currently the principal investigator for a study of the financial cost of criminal victimization, which will estimate the harms from victimization in nine domains that include outcomes from public health (mortality, morbidity, and trauma), criminal justice (recidivism and repeat victimization) and workforce (employment and disability).

Prior to joining NORC in 2016, John completed a study on behalf of the National Institute of Justice and the UK Home Office, which led to the publication of a book, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Crime Control. John served as the principal investigator for a large project funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to develop an architecture for pay-for-success contracts. He served as the principal investigator on the evaluations of drug courts in Brooklyn (NY), Anchorage (AK), and Birmingham (AL) and prisoner reentry programs in St. Louis (MO), Baltimore (MD), and Chattanooga (TN). Earlier in his career, he served as the research project manager for several large federally funded evaluations, including the National Institute of Justice funded Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE), the Serious, Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), the Washington, DC Superior Drug Intervention Program, and Break the Cycle.

John Roman

Director of Center on Public Safety & Justice
Economics, Justice, and Society
202-695-0518

John is a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice & Society department at NORC at the University of Chicago where he also directs the Center on Public Safety and Justice. His research focuses on the economics of innovative crime and justice policies and programs, cost-benefit methodology, public private partnerships and systems reforms, including justice system interactions with substance abuse, public health, adolescent development, housing, workforce development, and education. Dr. Roman has conducted research on behalf of numerous federal agencies, including the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, state and local governments, and private foundations. In that capacity, he served as the Visiting Science Director at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (2017 – 2018).

John has served as the principal investigator for more than three dozen projects funded by federal and local governments and national and local philanthropies. Over the last three years, he led a task force of leading subject matter experts convened to investigate the comprehensiveness of the US firearms data infrastructure, with particular attention to the overlap of public health and criminal justice data. He is currently the principal investigator for a study of the financial cost of criminal victimization, which will estimate the harms from victimization in nine domains that include outcomes from public health (mortality, morbidity, and trauma), criminal justice (recidivism and repeat victimization) and workforce (employment and disability).

Prior to joining NORC in 2016, John completed a study on behalf of the National Institute of Justice and the UK Home Office, which led to the publication of a book, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Crime Control. John served as the principal investigator for a large project funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to develop an architecture for pay-for-success contracts. He served as the principal investigator on the evaluations of drug courts in Brooklyn (NY), Anchorage (AK), and Birmingham (AL) and prisoner reentry programs in St. Louis (MO), Baltimore (MD), and Chattanooga (TN). Earlier in his career, he served as the research project manager for several large federally funded evaluations, including the National Institute of Justice funded Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE), the Serious, Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), the Washington, DC Superior Drug Intervention Program, and Break the Cycle.