Join CRB Nexus: Where Policy Meets Research for a live virtual discussion featuring Johanna Lacoe, Stacey Livingstone, Valerie Lundy-Wagner, and Joanne Spetz as they discuss Higher Education in policy and practice on Friday, September 19 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM! 

In support of a vibrant community of practice, this event will NOT be recorded. See you there!

CRB Nexus is a community of California researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and organizations committed to public policy solutions informed by data-driven research. We come together to connect, build professional relationships, and share information. Together we translate evidence into action and foster the next generation of public scholarship aimed at identifying and solving policy issues.

Come meet like-minded Californians as we build a research to policy community of practice!

Panelists and Special Policy Guest:

Dr. Johanna Lacoe is a policy scholar with expertise in criminal and juvenile justice, education, employment, and housing. As Research Director at CPL's UC Berkeley site, Dr. Lacoe designs and leads experimental and quasi-experimental research studies, partners with state and local agencies, and oversees research staff. Dr. Lacoe's research frequently connects siloed policy areas to better support vulnerable Californians. For example, she is co-PI of a project addressing food insecurity among college students.

Dr. Stacey Livingstone is a postdoctoral research fellow for the Homelessness Hub in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego where she works on several collaborative, community-engaged research projects In addition to her dissertation, which focused on the health consequences of vulnerability assessment tools and limited resources for those experiencing homelessness, Stacey has conducted public sociology research projects on student housing insecurity and permanent supportive housing with students and homelessness lived experience advocates respectively. Her research has been supported by the Global Health Institute and the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research.

Dr. Valerie Lundy-Wagner is associate director of the PPIC Higher Education Center and a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Her research focuses on multiple dimensions of higher education, including postsecondary access and college and career pathways in regional or systemwide contexts; her most recent focus has been on categorical program funding formulas and allocations in the California Community College system. Before joining PPIC, she oversaw the California Community College system’s research team as well as its IT operations and Education Technology portfolio. Previously, she led applied policy research at New York University, the Community College Research Center, Jobs for the Future, and California Competes. She holds a PhD in higher education administration from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in education from Stanford University, and a BS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Joanne Spetz is Director and Brenda and Jeffrey L. Kang Presidential Chair in Health Care Financing at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Spetz's research focuses on the economics of the health care workforce, organization of health care services, and quality of health care. She directs the federally funded UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care, which generates evidence to ensure an adequate workforce to provide patient-centered care to individuals with long-term care needs across the lifespan. She is an internationally known expert on the nursing workforce, leading studies of nurse supply, demand, education, earnings, and contributions to the quality of care across healthcare settings.

Our special policy guest is Jeanice Warden Washington, Chief Consultant for the Assembly Higher Education Committee.