Six outstanding scholars will work with Rockefeller Institute researchers on pressing public policy problems

Albany, NY — The Rockefeller Institute of Government is excited to announce six dynamic researchers as 2023-24 Richard P. Nathan Public Policy Fellows. Over the next year, these experts will partner with Rockefeller Institute researchers to examine timely public policy issues in higher education, public health, drug policy, and local government.

The prestigious fellowship program is named after former longtime Rockefeller Institute Director Richard P. Nathan. The fellowship seeks to connect cutting-edge policy expertise to public problems and the policy community that tries to address these problems.

“The Nathan Fellowship program is an excellent opportunity for scholars and practitioners to explore a policy research question with the support of the Institute’s research team,” said Laura Schultz, executive director of research at the Rockefeller Institute. “We are looking forward to working with this exceptional group of researchers on policy questions with immediate practical implications.”

The fellows are:

Pauline Hoffmann
Pauline Hoffmann is an associate professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University, a New York State senior public health fellow with the Cattaraugus County Health Department, and an entrepreneur. She owns Wild Mountain Organics, an all-natural body care company, and Data Doyenne, for the data nerd and the data nervous. As part of Data Doyenne, she has a LinkedIn newsletter and an upcoming podcast titled, “WTF? (What the Facts?),” which delves into all things misinformation and disinformation. She received her doctorate and master’s degrees in communication from the University at Buffalo and her bachelor of science in biology from St. Bonaventure University. Additionally, she completed the World Health Organization Infodemic Manager Training Program. Her research and teaching focus on infodemics, conflict management, conflict resolution, and corporate communication and strategy. Before going into academia, Hoffmann worked in creative services for Catholic Health. She also recently served as the Jandoli School of Communication and Graduate Studies dean. Her role as a senior health fellow includes strategic and communication planning. She also recently finished a book tentatively titled, WTF? (What the Facts?) An Infodemiologist’s Guide to the Truth, which will be published in May 2024 through Broad Book Press. As part of her fellowship, Hoffmann will study and work with people in rural communities to understand how to develop messaging to counteract the infodemic (pandemic of disinformation) of health-related messages.

Elizabeth A. Jach
Elizabeth A. Jach is an educational policy and leadership assistant professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Jach studies higher education experiences and outcomes; specifically, her research has examined the experiences of undocumented students, attitudes toward undocumented students’ pursuit of higher education, and allyship with undocumented students. Her research has appeared in journals such as New Directions for Higher Education, Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity, and Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. Jach has ten years of professional experience in higher education administration, including institutional research and effectiveness, human research protections, assessment of student learning, and student affairs. She has worked at various institutional types, including extensive research universities, a community college, and a liberal arts college. As part of her fellowship, Jach will examine allyship and advocacy with undocumented students, with particular attention to undocumented students’ pursuit and completion of higher education and how policies at the federal, state, and higher education policies can support that pursuit.

Daniel J. Mallinson
Daniel J. Mallinson is an associate professor of public policy and administration and professor-in-charge of the masters in public administration program in the School of Public Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg (PSH). He received his PhD in political science from Penn State. His research focuses on policy process theory, cannabis policy, and energy policy. Mallinson directs the PSH Policy Lab, bringing doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate students together around issues of stigma and the policy process. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles on policy and the policy process in journals such as Public Administration Review, Policy Studies Journal, American Review of Public Administration, Administration & Society, Public Administration Quarterly, Policy & Politics, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, and State and Local Government Review, among others. Mallinson also has three forthcoming books on state cannabis policy and education policy co-authored with A. Lee Hannah and Darrell Lovell, respectively. Additionally, he cares deeply about graduate education and co-edited the volume Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond, published by the American Political Science Association. Mallinson currently serves as an associate editor of Evidence & Policy. As part of his fellowship, Mallinson will study state cannabis social equity programs and the implementation of adult-use recreational cannabis in New York.

Jennifer Manganello
Jennifer Manganello is a professor in the University at Albany’s School of Public Health. She received a master’s in public health from Boston University and a PhD from the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in health communication at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center. Her research focuses on health literacy and the effects of media and technology on attitudes, behaviors, and policies that impact health; much of her work focuses on children, adolescents, young adults, and parents. She has published her research in academic journals such as Pediatrics, Public Health Management and Practice, Journal of Children and Media, and Public Health Nutrition. Manganello serves on the editorial board of four health communication journals and is a senior editor at the Journal of Health Communication. She regularly provides trainings for healthcare providers and public health professionals in topics related to health literacy and health communication. More recently, she has focused on applying her expertise to reduce health inequities for people with disabilities through research and practice. As part of her fellowship, Manganello will examine challenges related to accessing information, services, and support for families who have children with disabilities or special healthcare needs.

Shihyun Noh
Shihyun Noh is an associate professor of public administration at the State University of New York College at Brockport. He received his PhD from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and his MA and BA from Yonsei University. His research interests include health policy and administration, intergovernmental implementation of federal programs, and state and local government administration. Noh’s recent research covers various pertinent subjects, including how contracted health services affect health outcomes, such as quality of life and life expectancy, the factors affecting state operation of all-payer claims databases (APCDs), the impact of Medicaid expansion on county health spending, and the relationship between contracting out and local financial condition. As part of his fellowship, he will investigate how state and local governments can effectively address public health challenges, focusing on state public health governance and price transparency.

Samuel Workman
Samuel Workman is a professor of political science and director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs in the John D. “Jay” Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics at West Virginia University. The Institute provides non-partisan research and analysis to state, county, and municipal officials in the Appalachian region. The Institute’s initiatives seek to build data infrastructure and information systems in the region to help facilitate data-driven decision-making in public policy and good governance, and aid in economic development. His previous work has addressed public policy, regulation, and how governments use information. Current projects examine how policymaking systems generate and use information and how this relates to community resilience and development. His work emphasizes text-as-data, machine learning, and statistical modeling, especially classification. His area of expertise is constructing large data infrastructures to answer fundamental questions about public policy across time and space. He is a member of the West Virginia Economic Development Council. He writes on practical applications of data science and statistics at Towards Data Science and is a founding editor of 3Streams. In addition to editorial duty, he writes on rural politics and policy, including public policy in Appalachia. As part of his fellowship, he will examine spatial and temporal patterns of county and municipal spending in West Virginia and New York, and connect these to community well-being and resilience.