Welcome to the Center for Policy Research. CPR has a long and distinguished history within the Maxwell School dating back to 1961 with the start of the Metropolitan Studies program.
CPR’s mission is to support policy-relevant research and disseminate knowledge that enables leaders to make informed policy decisions and provide effective solutions to critical challenges in our local region, state, country and across the world. We aim to be a leading center of policy-relevant research excellence whose scholarship will shape the public policies of the future to promote well-being and resilience.
Today’s challenges are complex. Solving them requires expertise from multiple scientific disciplines and varied methodological approaches. CPR scholars have backgrounds in economics, public administration, sociology, and demography and methodological skills that include program evaluation, experimental design, econometric analysis, survey research, qualitative interviewing, and ethnography. Our research and teaching strengths fall within the broad policy areas of education; energy and the environment; health; public finance; social welfare, poverty and income security; and urban, rural and regional studies.
CPR also houses and provides administrative support to three affiliated centers—the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, the Maxwell X Lab, and the Center for Policy Design and Governance. Collectively, these centers foster and support interdisciplinary research, training and outreach aimed at providing comprehensive assessments of and informing policy solutions for our most pressing social problems.
CPR disseminates information through public webinars, faculty and student workshops, academic and non-academic publications, and presentations. We have a strong graduate student community where students receive training and contribute to our collaborative environment.
I encourage you to peruse our website and follow us on social media to keep track of our publications and many exciting public events.
Shannon Monnat
Professor, Sociology Department
Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion and Population Health, Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion
Director and Senior Research Associate, Center for Policy Research
Co-Director, Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab
Research Affiliate, Aging Studies Institute