New policy professors specialize in media literacy, computing, elections, economics and writing

Nejla Asimovic , who joins the McCourt School of Public Policy as an assistant professor in computational social science, sees deep connections between our now ubiquitous use of digital technologies and intergroup relations in many different areas of the world. Asimovic is currently leading a global study on the causal effects of social media, exploring how platforms can be designed to better identify and increase the visibility of common ground across political divides and designing digital interventions to improve migrant integration. Her research and writing include an emphasis on the effects of social media on interethnic relations in post-conflict and ethnically polarized societies, including an examination of intergroup contact over the years among youth in Israel, the effects of social media deactivation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the importance of critical media literacy in the 21st century. An affiliate of the Center for Social Media and Politics and the Conflict and Cooperation Center at New York University, Asimovic is a native of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and earned a Ph.D. in political science from New York University.

Kaylee Matheny ’s roots in education came long before she researched socioeconomic inequality in educational opportunities, beginning with her experience as a first-generation high school graduate and continuing as a 10th-grade English teacher in her hometown of Griffin, Georgia. As an assistant professor and Provost’s Distinguished Faculty Fellow at McCourt, Matheny will advance her research on the impact of inequality on education throughout people’s lifetimes using various techniques — including quantitative descriptive, quasi-experimental and qualitative methodologies. Her work evaluating equity-motivated practices and understanding classed educational experiences has received media coverage from The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Times Higher Education. She earned a Ph.D. in sociology of education and educational policy and an M.A. in sociology from Stanford University and a B.A. in sociology and creative writing from Emory University. Outside the classroom, Matheny is passionate about science fiction and fantasy books, creative writing and trying new recipes.

Thessalia Merivaki joins the McCourt School as an associate teaching professor and an associate research professor at the Massive Data Institute. Merivaki, whose research interests lie at the intersection of election science, voter behavior and political communication, will continue co-directing the Election Officials’ Communication Tracker, a massive data collection and analysis initiative that tracks all state and local election officials’ communication efforts on social media. She will also work with academics, federal and state agencies, election officials and pro-democracy stakeholders to understand how accurate and false information flows in the election information ecosystem and how trust-building communication campaigns can help build trust in the integrity of elections. Merivaki received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida.

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach will join the McCourt School as McCourt Chair in the fall of 2025. Schanzenbach studies policies aimed at improving the lives of children in poverty. Her work traces the impact of major education, health and income support policies, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, school finance reform and early childhood education, on children’s long-term outcomes. Schanzenbach holds an undergraduate degree in economics and religion from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a research associate at the Institute for Research on Poverty. She is a member on the Food and Nutrition Board at the National Academies, an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the National Academy of Social Insurance, and serves on the boards of directors of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Food Research and Action Center and Start Early.

While not new to the McCourt School, Lisa Singh — currently a professor in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Arts of Sciences and director of the Massive Data Institute — has expanded her role to include a professorship at McCourt. She is also a 2024 William and Karen Sonneborn Chair for Interdisciplinary Collaboration award winner. Singh is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters related to data mining and data science and is the co-author of Words That Matter: How News and Social Media Shaped the 2016 Presidential Election, a book assessing how the news media covered the extraordinary campaign. As a woman in the data-centric computing space, Singh has been involved in various initiatives focused on increasing the participation of women in computing, including helping to increase the percentage of women in computer science at Georgetown and integrating computational thinking into K-12 curricula. She is affiliated with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at the School of Foreign Service and serves on Georgetown’s Technology and Society Steering Committee. Singh received her B.S.E. from Duke University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Meri Wimberly ’s role teaching writing at McCourt has expanded to assistant teaching professor and faculty director of the McCourt Policy-Writing Center. Wimberly has led the center since June 2022, helping educate students on strategic communication to support their academic and professional goals. She has more than a decade of experience teaching postsecondary writing and continues teaching undergraduates in the Georgetown University Writing Program. Wimberly holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington. She believes writing is a powerful skill that can change people’s careers and lives.