The Institute’s faculty are recognized nationally and internationally for policy engagement and rigorous research. On campus, students appreciate them for being open and approachable, and for their strong commitment to teaching. The faculty includes scholars trained in academic disciplines such as economics, sociology, public policy, law, and political science, as well as “professors of the practice”—such as a former ambassador, a senior Pentagon attorney, and journalists—who bring years of policy-relevant work experience to the classroom.

Their thought-provoking work addresses some of today’s most complex and challenging issues, including globalization, bioethics and genomics, racial and ethnic inequality, education reform, youth violence, HIV/AIDS, sustainable development, international trade and development, democratization, and foreign policy.

Social and Health Policy

Phil Cook
ITT/Terry Sanford Professor of Public Policy Studies
Professor of Economics and Sociology

Phil Cook’s research topics–including crime, violence, alcohol abuse and gambling–often appear on the nation’s evening news. Throughout his long career, Cook has applied economic methodologies to the analysis of these deeply rooted social and health problems, prompting new public policy approaches.

His latest book, Paying the Tab, suggests that US alcohol policy has neglected the “supply side.” It examines the long history and effectiveness of alcohol control policies, and concludes that raising alcohol excise taxes would save lives and reduce crime.

Cook also is a recognized expert on the consequences of the wide availability of guns. In the book, Gun Violence: The Real Costs, Cook and co-author Jens Ludwig measured societal costs of gun violence in a new way, by assessing the costs of prevention and victimization along with the expenses of lost productivity and medical treatment. 

Cook has collaborated with Sanford professor Charles Clotfelter on the subject of state lotteries and with Robert H. Frank on the causes and consequences of the growing inequality of earnings in America (The Winner-Take-All Society).

He frequently is invited to serve on national advisory panels dealing with such topics as underage drinking, school rampage shootings and ballistics “fingerprinting.” He also has served as a criminal justice consultant to several federal agencies. A member of the Duke faculty since 1973, Cook formerly directed the Sanford Institute and chaired the public policy department (twice). He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001.

Graduate Courses Taught: Quantitative Evaluation Methods; Master's Project I; Alcohol Policy

Social Policy

Helen “Sunny” Ladd
Edgar T. Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies
Professor of Economics
Charles Clotfelter
Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies
Professor of Economics and Law
Jacob Vigdor
Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics

If you happen to see Helen Ladd, Charles Clotfelter, and Jacob Vigdor chatting in the hallway, chances are good they’re discussing their latest education-related research. The three professors frequently collaborate on analyses of current problems in education, such as teacher quality and assessment and minority achievement gaps. All are affiliated with the Center for Child and Family Policy, and all earned a doctorate in economics from Harvard.

Much of their work draws on a rich N.C. school database that allows them to track students over time. They’re working with a consortium of researchers at five other universities who have access to similar data sets, exploring common themes and seeking to uncover national patterns. The effort is funded by a five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

They also pursue research separately. Clotfelter, director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism, has written extensively on state lotteries, the economics of education, the nonprofit sector, public finance and tax policy.

Ladd is a widely respected tax and education finance expert, having chaired a National Academy of Sciences committee, testified to Congress, and been a consultant on tax policy and intergovern-mental relations for all three levels of government. In recent years she has explored education reform in post-apartheid South Africa.

Vigdor’s wide array of interests have led to research and published articles on residential segregation, immigration, housing affordability, civic participation and racial inequality in the labor market. 

Graduate courses taught
Charles Clotfelter: Microeconomics and Policymaking
Sunny Ladd: Microeconomics: Policy Applications; Microeconomics and Policymaking; Schools and Social Policy
Jacob Vigdor: Statistics and Data Analysis for Policymakers; Urban Policy

Global Policy

Anirudh Krishna
Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies and Political Science

Before joining academia, Anirudh Krishna spent 14 years working on the applied side of public policy—planning and managing urban and rural development programs as a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). It was a natural stepping stone to his research on poverty and democracy in developing countries.

Through studies of more than 25,000 households in rural communities across India, Kenya, Uganda, Peru and North Carolina, Krishna has developed a new, community-based approach to understanding poverty dynamics. His “stages of progress” model recognizes that different forces are at work when households fall into poverty or rise from poverty.

“One set of reasons accounts for descents, but a different set of reasons is associated with escape,” he said “Policies to promote escapes are commonly considered, but policies to prevent descents have been largely overlooked.”

Krishna also is interested in how poverty affects citizen participation in democratic processes in developing countries, as well as cultural and community-level variance in measurements of social capital. As a faculty affiliate of the Duke Center for International Development, Krishna also has helped conduct governance and leadership training for mid-career professionals of the IAS, his former employer.

Graduate Courses Taught: Politics of the Policy Process; Communities and Development; Assisting Development in Third-World Countries

Global Policy

Bruce W. Jentleson
Professor of Public Policy Studies and Political Science

Bruce Jentleson, a leading expert on U.S. foreign policy and particularly the Middle East, focuses his work on issues of peace and security in today’s world. In addition to publishing the 3rd edition of his widely used textbook American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century, Jentleson’s recent work includes articles on terrorism, sanctions against Iran, humanitarian intervention and post-Bush foreign policy.

During the 2006-07 academic year, Jentleson was a visiting senior research fellow at Oxford University and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Spain. Books in the works include one on post-Bush foreign policy and one on force and diplomacy.

Students recognize Jentleson as an academic who connects research with practice beyond the university. With experience as a senior foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign and as a member of the State Department Policy Planning Staff in the Clinton Administration, Jentleson brings a background in politics and applied policy to his teaching and research.

In addition, he contributes to a prominent foreign policy blog, America Abroad, and is frequently sought out by the media to comment on current affairs. He served as director of the Sanford Institute from 2000 to 2005.

Courses taught: Globalization & Governance, America in a Global Age, Masters Project advisor

Health and Social Policy

Sherman A. James
Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy Studies
Professor of Sociology, Community and Family Medicine, and African and African American Studies

Under the leadership of Sherman James, Duke is working with African-American churches in Durham on a multiyear health research project aimed at tackling the diabetes epidemic from the ground up.

“Our goal is to develop community-based approaches to help diabetics better manage their health—approaches that are culturally appropriate and sustainable,” James said. A social epidemiologist, James researches social determinants of racial and ethnic health inequalities and seeks to develop interventions to reduce these inequalities.

James traces his interest in the health of black Americans to a job he started in seventh grade at a pharmacy in his hometown, Hartsville, S.C. In the afternoons, prominent black professionals gathered there for conversations about race, health, science, politics, and current events. Their dialogues sparked James’ desire to explore the multiple factors that affect the health and wellbeing of African Americans.

In the 1980s, after earning his doctorate in social psychology, James’ groundbreaking research on “John Henryism” provided empirical support for the idea that persistent, high-effort coping with psychological stress induced by historical social and economic inequality contributes to the excess burden of disease in African Americans. This work and other research led to his election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2000.

In June 2007, James became the first black person to be elected president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, the world’s largest professional society of epidemiologists.

Graduate Courses Taught: Poverty, Inequality and Health

Social Policy

Kristin Goss
Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies and Political Science

When Kristin Goss was in graduate school, she watched news coverage of the Columbine shootings and found herself asking, “Where’s the gun control movement in this country?”

The question led to her award-winning dissertation and then a book, Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America. In it, she examines the organizational, historical, and policy-related factors that have stymied gun control in the United States. Now recognized as a national expert, Goss’ comments on gun control have been published in newspapers across the country.

Her current research grew out of her gun-control work. While trying to identify the leaders of the movement, she became interested in how policy priorities of women’s organizations have changed since the Civil War, and how those changes have influenced the nation’s political agenda.

Before entering academe, Goss served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Corporation for National and Community Service. She also was a Washington-based journalist for six years, covering nonprofit organizations and foundations. She retains an interest in this field, and works with the Duke Foundation Impact Research Group. And, as a graduate of the Duke MPP program, Goss has firsthand insight into the challenges of the first-year core curriculum.

Graduate Courses Taught: Politics of the Policy Process; Philanthropic Foundations and Public Policy;
Women in Public Policy