Senator Elizabeth Warren Among New Fellows of AAPSS

Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law professor whose focus on consumer protection helped create the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and landed her in the U.S. Senate two years ago, will be one of seven scholars named fellows of the American Academy of Political and Social Science this year.

Each year AAPSS, one of the nation’s oldest learned societies, inducts a handful of fellows each year in recognition of their contributions to the improvement of society through research and influence over public policy.  Since founding the fellows program in 2000, 93 scholars and public servants have been inducted.

The seven fellows are:

Janet Currie, an economist whose work has centered on the health and well-being of children. She is the Henry Putnam professor of economics and public affairs and director of the Center for Health and Well-Being at Princeton University and also the director of the Program on Families and Children at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Greg Duncan, whose research explores early intervention programs for children and how children’s behaviors and skills at a young age impact their longer-term well-being. He is a distinguished professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine, and an adjunct faculty member at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

Kathryn Edin, a sociologist whose work has focused on social welfare, urban poverty, nonmarital childbearing and family life. She is a professor of public policy and management at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Alan Gerber, a political scientist who has gathered empirical data on campaign and fundraising programs and has applied experimental methods to the study of campaign communications. He is the Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley professor of political science and the director of the Center for the Study of American Politics at Yale University.

Heidi Hartmann, an economist who is founder and president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a research organization in Washington, D.C. Her work addresses the effects of public policy on women’s lives and on their participation and engagement in the labor force.

Daniel Nagin, a criminologist who uses statistical methods to analyze criminal and antisocial behavior over the course of individuals’ lives. He is the Teresa and H. John Heinz III University professor of public policy and statistics and associate dean of faculty of the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University.

Elizabeth Warren, a legal scholar by training, is a leading expert on bankruptcy and financial hardships facing the middle class.  She was the Leo Gottlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School before representing Massachusetts as a Senate Democrat.

“Each has made essential contributions to our understanding of how American society functions and whether our public policies act in the common good,” said Douglas Massey, a Princeton sociologist and president of the AAPSS. “They are distinguished public servants and scholars, and we are privileged to have them among us.”

The seven will officially join the academy at a Washington, D.C. ceremony May 8.