Congratulations to Lonnie Berger, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in the Social Sciences and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Social Work, for receiving the 2022 Social Policy Researcher Award from the Society for Social Work and Research. The award honors a social work scholar who has demonstrated distinguished achievement across an extended career of research and has influenced the direction, design, and/or implementation of social policy and its effects on marginalized and oppressed populations.
Berger’s research focuses on the ways in which economic resources, sociodemographic characteristics, and public policies affect parental behaviors and child and family well-being. In his work, Berger aims to inform public policy in order to improve its capacity to assist families in accessing resources, improving family functioning and well-being, and ensuring that children are able to grow and develop in the best possible environments. Berger was the director of the Institute for Research on Poverty from 2014–19.
CDE also congratulates affiliate Tim Smeeding, Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics, for receiving the 2022 Hilldale Award in the Social Sciences. Given annually since 1986–87, awards recognize one faculty member from each division for their distinguished contributions to teaching, research, and service. Smeeding’s research focuses on social and economic mobility across generations, inequality of income, consumption and wealth, and poverty in national and cross-national contexts. He was director of the Institute for Research on Poverty from 2008–14. In 2017, he was named the John Kenneth Galbraith Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and was the founding director of the Luxembourg Income Study from 1983–2006.