Mathematica’s mission is to improve public well-being. But what does that really mean? Sociology offers an answer: It depends. It depends on the context, what is being done, and how public good is defined.
This idea of context reminds me of a time during my career when I ran an interdisciplinary master’s program in applied research at Columbia University, the Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences program. I fondly remember one student taking a structural equation modeling class, a statistical technique used to measure model complexity. Every time we hosted a guest speaker, this student would raise his hand and ask, “How would you do this with a structural equation model?” The speakers often responded with some variation of, “I wouldn’t.” Yet the student kept asking the same question. His persistence illustrated the adage, “To the boy who’s just learned to hammer, everything looks like a nail.” For this enthusiastic learner who just discovered structural equation modeling, everything was viewed through the lens of that framework.
But when you need work done on your home, you don’t call the “hammer guy.” You call someone who knows how to use a bunch of different tools and how to choose the right tool for the task at hand.
The same idea applies to improving public well-being. It’s not about forcing every problem into the confines of a single approach. It’s about carefully considering the tools at our disposal, understanding their appropriate and inappropriate uses, and applying them thoughtfully to meet the unique needs of each situation. Whether the tool is a statistical technique, a theoretical framework, or something else entirely, the goal is the same: to take advantage of diverse perspectives and approaches in service of our mission to improve lives.
From my early years growing up in a small town in East Texas, I saw firsthand the inequities among my classmates—poor learning conditions, disproportionality in disciplinary actions, lack of access to running water, and more. These early experiences shaped my desire to focus on things that could make a positive difference and drive improvements. When I went to college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study. I ended up taking an education course, though I wasn’t very engaged in it; however, my work on a class project led me down a path by which I accidentally discovered census data and social science research. Most of my background is rooted in sociology and demography, but I often say it’s easier for me to list the topics I’m not interested in than the ones I’m interested in. My time working at Columbia expanded those interests even further, leading me into fields such as economic history, public health, political science, and education. But a key challenge for me in academia came in its lack of practical reach, and the idea of spending years working on a paper that might only be read by a handful of people.
Too often, research is left to speak for itself, leaving its potential to influence decision making and policy untapped. So, I left academia to work for a small research consultancy that worked with ABC News, where I experienced a startling shift. Instead of taking years to write a paper, I saw stories and reports being drafted and shared almost instantly with large, diverse TV and web audiences. It reminded me that research isn’t just about generating insights—it’s also about communicating them effectively. Researchers aren’t typically trained in communication, but it’s not enough to do the work in hopes someone else will stumble upon it and put it to use. Policymaking—and decision making in general—requires clear, objective information and input.
This belief, along with my desire to do more impactful work, is what drew me to Mathematica. I knew about the company, its people, and the research it conducted before I came aboard. Here, I saw an opportunity to connect my academic background with my passion for public policy and communication. At Mathematica, I’m able to help ensure the right tools are used to conduct rigorous research, which directly informs the decisions that improve public well-being.
