After about a yearlong search process, Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research announced Prof. David Figlio will serve as its next director starting Sept. 1, 2012.
Founded in 1968, the IPR is an interdisciplinary public policy research institute consisting of 38 faculty fellows and 69 faculty associates. The institute’s mission is to stimulate and publicize social science research on public policy, according to its website.
Figlio, an education economist in his fourth year at NU, is a faculty fellow at IPR and a professor at the School of Education and Social Policy. He said he will continue to teach and research during his time as IPR director.
Figlio said his goals include expanding international research and turning NU into a world-class policy school, referring to Harvard’s Kennedy School and University of Chicago’s Harris School as examples. Figlio said he plans to serve as director for at least one term, which is five years.
IPR, Figlio said, is an advocate not for any certain policy, but an advocate for better research and data that can be useful to policy makers.
“We’ll have better policies if people are armed with more information,” he said.
Figlio said he became interested in education and social policy while growing up in Baltimore and attending public school.
“People who grow up in cities often become pretty observant about a wide range of social problems,” he said. “I thought that it would be really important to try to make people’s lives better.”
Although he said he thinks IPR already does great research, Figlio said he would like to change a few things and grow the institute. IPR runs the Summer Undergraduate Research Assistants Program, which allows NU undergraduates to assist professors in their research. IPR also has programs for graduate and post-doctoral assistants. Figlio said he is interested in expanding these programs to run into the academic year and added thatNU has a great student body that is very interested in policy.
“We have phenomenal students at all levels,” he said.
Weinberg freshman Hannah Bredar said she supports the move to expand IPR’s student programs. Even though her interest is in anthropology, Bredar said she thinks the interdisciplinary work of IPR can be beneficial to students.
“As an adult, you’ll have to collaborate with people in other fields,” Bredar said.
Figlio said he has great respect for the work IPR and its former director already does.
He will be replacing long-standing director of IPR, Prof. Fay Lomax Cook, who will step down after 16 years as director.
“Fay Cook has done an amazing job for the last 16 years,” he said.
Cook started at NU and IPR in 1979, when the institute was called the Center for Urban Affairs. Under her leadership, the institute not only changed its name to better reflect its wide array of research, but also expanded to include two related research centers, Cook said.
Cook and Figlio will work closely together until Figlio takes over as director. Cook will continue to work at IPR as a fellow and teach in SESP.
Cook said she believes NU has chosen the right person to replace her.
“He is a wonderful leader, a visionary thinker, and a person who has huge amounts of enthusiasm and energy for this project,” Cook said.
