Allen L. Schirm
Senior Fellow, Director of Methods

Allen Schirm, senior fellow and director of methods at Mathematica, is a nationally recognized expert in program evaluation, the decennial census, fund allocation, and innovative statistical methods for measuring poverty and program eligibility and participation for states and local areas. His research has substantially influenced the development of policy and the administration of programs designed to improve the well-being of vulnerable populations.

Schirm, who joined Mathematica in 1989, directed Mathematica’s experimental evaluation of the Power4Kids Initiative, a study of intensive remedial reading interventions for struggling readers, as well as the firm’s evaluation of the Quantum Opportunity Program Demonstration for at-risk youth. He has also led Mathematica’s research to develop state estimates of Food Stamp Program participation rates and infants and children eligible for the WIC program. The WIC estimates are used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allocate food funds to the states.

Schirm has served on four expert panels convened by the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on National Statistics, and is currently chairing a panel. After the 2000 Decennial Census, he advised the U.S. Secretary of Commerce about whether adjusted census estimates should be used for congressional redistricting. In 2006, he delivered the opening keynote address at the annual conference of the Government Statistical Service in the United Kingdom.

 

Schirm was named a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) in recognition of his outstanding professional contributions to and leadership in the field of statistical science. He has been the program chair and chair of ASA’s Social Statistics Section. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

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