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Katie Vinopal

Associate Professor, Director of Doctoral Studies

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 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
Examining inequality in the time cost of waiting
Nature Human Behavior
February 09, 2023

Katie Vinopal examines the difference between high- and low-income people in time spent waiting for basic services.

Strictly Speaking: Examining Teacher Use of Punishment and Student Outcomes
May 02, 2022

This working paper, from Associate Professor Katie Vinopal and colleagues, examines how teachers vary in disciplinary behaviors and the impacts on students.

It's About Time: Examining Inequality in the Time Cost of Waiting
June 03, 2021

This working paper, from Associate Professor Katie Vinopal, examines the scale and extent of socioeconomic differences in waiting time

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Children’s Cognitive Skill Trajectories
Children and Youth Services Review,
September 01, 2020

Associate Professor Katie Vinopal examines how neighborhood poverty is associated with children’s trajectories of growth in math and reading skills in early elementary school

Socioeconomic Representation: Expanding the Theory of Representative Bureaucracy
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
April 01, 2020

Associate Professor Katie Vinopal investigates whether socioeconomic representation affects teachers' perceptions of their relationships with students.

Rookie Mistakes: The Interplay of Teacher Experience and Racial Representation
Educational Researcher
September 11, 2019

Associate Professor Katie Vinopal examines the extent to which teachers’ perceptions of racially dissimilar students vary by experience in the teaching profession

Center-Based Early Care and Education and Children’s School Readiness: Do Impacts Vary by Neighborhood Poverty?
Developmental Psychology
November 30, 2017

Professor Katie Vinopal examines the effects of neighborhood provided resources on children’s achievement and development.

Understanding Individual and Organizational Level Representation: The Case of Parental Involvement in Schools
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
October 13, 2017

Associate Professor Katie Vinopal examines whether the benefits of representation stem from individual (direct)- versus organizational (indirect)-level pathways, or both.

Neighborhood Poverty and Children's Academic Skills and Behavior in Early Elementary School
Journal of Marriage and Family
August 24, 2017

Associate Professor Katie Vinopal evaluates the degree associations between neighborhood disadvantage and outcomes persist into elementary school and whether neighborhood disadvantage interacts with household disadvantage.

Office

350N Page Hall

Expertise

Poverty and Inequality; Representative Bureaucracy; Child and Family Policy; Education Policy