Dawn Dow Made an Inaugural Member of the Urban Institute’s Equity Scholars Program

The Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization that provides data and evidence to help advance upward mobility and equity, recently named Associate Professor Dawn Dow of the Department of Sociology to its inaugural Equity Scholars Program cohort. 

As an Equity Scholar, Dow will spend two years working with the Urban Institute’s new Office of Race and Equity Research to study and develop evidence-based solutions that decision makers can use to advance racial equity. 

“This appointment represents a great opportunity for Dr. Dow, the Urban Institute, the Department of Sociology, and our university,” said Professor Jeff Lucas, chair of the department. “It is especially gratifying to see Dr. Dow selected for this position after her participation as a member of the first cohort in the university’s Research Leaders Fellows Program. Dr. Dow is a research leader in the field of sociology and carries out research with important policy implications. I’m excited to see the results from her time as an Urban Institute Equity Scholar.”

In addition to being one of 18 inaugural members from across the university to participate in the Office of the Vice President of Research’s 10-month program, from 2019-2021, Dow also served as the faculty director of the Critical Race Initiative, a group of scholars who center critical race theory as an important framework by which to understand inequality in society. She is also a faculty associate within the Maryland Population Research Center, which draws together leading scholars from diverse disciplines to support, produce and promote population-related research of the highest scientific merit. Dow also co-chairs the Research and Events Subcommittee of the BSOS Anti-Black Racism Initiative.

“I’ve seen these models of scholars who are admired and thought highly of who have taken their research and put it into a context where they are able to have more of an impact on policy creation and stakeholders who might have influence on policies related to their area of interest,” said Dow, referencing department colleagues Rashawn Ray and Dana Fisher and their roles as scholars of Brookings. “Part of why I had applied to this opportunity was because of those models, and also because I’ve had the opportunity at the University of Maryland to take part in various programs that had exposed me to other folks who had decided to take some time to be in more applied settings, to lend their research expertise and to engage with people who are looking at social issues from different perspectives and using different tools.”

Dow submitted her application and letters of recommendation from individuals she’s worked with over the course of her career in late July. Her appointment was announced in September 2021, and begins in January 2022 in the Urban Institute’s Center on Labor, Human Services and Population.  

“One of the things I want to focus on is having a better understanding of how the pandemic has had an amplified impact on the Black family,” said Dow, who has relatedly authored “Mothering While Black: The Boundaries and Burdens of Middle-Class Parenthood” (University of California Press, 2019). “My aim is to focus on research that is trying to better understand those challenges, how they've been amplified, what policies and programs should be produced to try to address those things, and to also look for opportunities to partner with others at Urban who are engaging in similar kinds of research.”
 

Published on Tue, Jan 18, 2022 - 10:43AM