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Mathematica Launches Center for Studying Disability Policy
Contact: Cheryl Pedersen, (609) 275-2258, or Craig Thornton, (202) 484-5277
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 31, 2007)—Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., announces the launch of its new Center for Studying Disability Policy. The center merges disability researchers from the Cornell University Institute for Policy Research and Mathematica. The mission of the new center is to inform disability policy formation with rigorous, objective research and data collected from the people disability policy aims to serve.
For some time, the two organizations have collaborated on large-scale studies of Social Security disability programs that seek to improve the employment and economic independence of people who receive disability benefits. Staff members at both organizations also conduct research into many other disability-related issues, including ways to facilitate consumer choice, care coordination, long-term care, health insurance coverage, children with special needs, and mental health services research. Looking to the future, the center will disseminate its work through a new website and issue brief series as well as through continued publication in professional journals.
Since its inception in 1968, Mathematica has been conducting innovative research and data collection related to public policies in the health and human services area. Since the early 1980s, the firm has conducted many significant disability studies, including some of the first rigorous evaluations of employment supports for people with severe disabilities and the largest surveys of people with disabilities. More than 30 staff continue this pioneering work today through a wide range of innovative disability research and data collection.
Staff members at the Cornell University Institute for Policy Research, located in Washington, D.C., have published widely on disability-related topics, including employment trends for people with disabilities and ways to improve support for people with severe impairments. Three prominent disability researchers from the institute have joined the new center: David Stapleton, Gina Livermore, and Bonnie O'Day. All are well known for their disability research, particularly in the areas of employment, income support, and health. Dr. Stapleton, who directed Cornell's institute, is the director of the new center.
“The aging of the population, potential shortages of workers, rising program costs, and other social trends will increase the need for effective disability programs and policies in the future. However, the nation is in a poor position to develop and monitor new policies because of the paucity of rigorous policy research to guide action,” said Dr. Craig Thornton, senior vice president at Mathematica Policy Research. “Mathematica's new Center for Studying Disability Policy will help address this situation by fusing the deep disability policy and research expertise from two preeminent research organizations with our historically strong expertise in the fields of education, welfare, child development, health services research, and employment policy. We look to synthesize lessons and data from all these areas to develop new approaches for assisting people with disabilities to live fuller lives.”
Stapleton says the Center “will make a significant contribution to the evidence base needed to support the ongoing transition of disability policies. Our center will help society move beyond the era when people with significant physical and mental impairments were expected to be highly dependent on others. We think that rigorous research can help leverage ongoing technological advancements and changing social norms to produce an environment where people with disabilities can obtain much more control over their own lives and a high level of economic independence.”
Paul Decker, president of Mathematica Policy Research, said, “Generating better information to inform policy development requires strong conceptual, methodological, and empirical studies. Mathematica's new Center for Studying Disability Policy will bring new ideas and energy to disability policy while helping the nation build a better evidence base for decisionmaking.”
Mathematica®, a nonpartisan firm, conducts policy research and surveys for federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector clients. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., strives to improve public well-being by bringing the highest standards of quality, objectivity, and excellence to bear on the provision of information collection and analysis to its clients.