Research is hardly a glamorous field, but Assistant Professor Carolyn J. Hill has made it a little more interesting. The professor at Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute was recognized recently by a committee of peers for her research on welfare-to-work programs in the United States.
Hill and her two co-authors won the 2003 Raymond Vernon Memorial Prize for Best Article published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
“I’ve always been interested in how the organization of a program influences its effectiveness,” said Hill, who began work on the award- winning project four and a half years ago, while a student at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of public policy.
The celebrated paper explores which factors improve the success rate of welfare-to-work programs.
The trio based their research on data collected by the Manpower DemonstrationResearch Corporation, a non-profit organization that measures the value of social programs aimed at eliminating poverty.
“The paper uses a combination of methods to determine effectiveness,” said Hill. The group studied data collected from 59 welfare offices in the United States, evaluated the organization of each office and noted the varying characteristics of welfare recipients.
Hill, who is currently teaching several public policy courses for graduate students, has plans to extend her research on the organization of welfare programs. She also has plans to study a partnership between Chicago public schools and other organizations in the area.
Hill isn’t sure what the recognition will do for her future career plans, but she appreciates the nod from her peers in the public policy profession all the same.
“A lot of work goes into a project like this,” she said, “and to have it acknowledged means a lot.”
