Beth Ann Griffin, PhD
Senior Statistician
RAND Corporation
“Methodological Considerations for Estimating Policy Effects in the Context of Co-occurring Policies”
Bio: Beth Ann Griffin, PhD, is a Senior Statistician at the RAND Corporation where she serves as codirector of the NIDA-funded RAND/USC Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center (OPTIC) whose goal is to foster innovative research, tools, and methods for tackling the opioid epidemic. Her statistical research has focused on methods for estimating causal effects using observational data, including work to identify optimal methods for state policy evaluations.
Hugo Jales, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Economics
Syracuse University
“Two-Way Fixed Effects and Difference-in-Difference: Problems and Solutions”
Bio: Hugo Jales, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University. His main research interests are labor economics and econometrics. Jales works on a large array of policy issues such as food insecurity, minimum wage, college admissions, child-tax credit, and others. Jales is an associate editor of the Journal of Population Economics and a fellow of the Global Labor Organization.
Ellicot Matthay, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
“Problems and Solutions for Co-occurring Policies in Research on the Health Effects of Social Policies”
Bio: Ellicott Matthay, PhD MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Her research applies multidisciplinary causal inference methods to identify programs and policies that reduce violence and the adverse health effects of alcohol and drug use. She also conducts methodological work to improve the rigor of applied studies in population health. She currently holds a K99/R00 Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to examine the interactive effects of local alcohol and cannabis policies on self-directed and interpersonal violence. Dr. Matthay received the Tyroler Student Paper Prize in 2017 and the Lilienfeld Postdoctoral Prize in 2021, both from the Society of Epidemiologic Research. Her research has been covered by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and WIRED, among others.
Alexander Tahk, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Policy Indices in the State Policy & Politics Database”
Bio: Alexander Tahk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Director of the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership. His research and teaching interests are in the fields of political methodology, with a focus on Bayesian statistics and ideal-point models, and American politics, with a focus on judicial politics. Professor Tahk completed his doctoral work in political science at Stanford University, where he also received a master’s degree in statistics. He received his undergraduate degrees in mathematics and political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work has been published in major research publications such as the American Political Science Review, Political Analysis, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Social Influence, and New Media & Society. He also serves as a Faculty Affiliate with the University of Wisconsin Law School and an Honorary Fellow in its Institute for Legal Studies.