Katie Vinopal’s research centers on understanding how we can design policies and reform institutions to better contribute to the positive development of children and tackle long-standing issues of social inequity. She teaches several classes at the Glenn College, including Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy; Public Affairs Statistics; Public Policy Analysis; and Data, Models, and Evaluation.
Dr. Vinopal received her Ph.D. in public administration from the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. and a B.S. in mathematics from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Prior to her academic career, Vinopal worked as a research assistant in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. There she conducted research on issues, policies, and systems impacting low-income families. Vinopal also worked on national and local hunger and food security issues in the nonprofit sector for the Food Research and Action Center in Washington, DC.
Vinopal has been awarded the 2020 Public Management Research Association Riccucci-O’Leary Award for Best Article on Diversity Published in JPART or PPMG, an Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) 40 for 40 Fellowship in 2018, and was a Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) emerging scholar in 2015. She is also the recipient of the 2021 Glenn College’s Mary K. Marvel Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award and the 2021 Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award through the Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry Office at The Ohio State University.
Vinopal’s work has been published in high impact journals, including the Nature, Human Behaviour, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Educational Researcher, Journal of Marriage and Family and Developmental Psychology, among others.
Research Focus:
- Poverty and Inequality
- Child and Family Policy
- Education Policy
- Public Management