Team directory
Team directory
Rourke O'Brien, Associate Professor of Sociology
Rourke O’Brien is an associate professor of sociology. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of social and economic inequalities with substantive interests in household and public finance, economic mobility, and population health.
Cormac O'Dea, Assistant Professor of Economics
Cormac O’Dea is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research interests are in household saving, retirement and intergenerational links in economic outcomes.
A. David Paltiel, Professor of Public Health (Health Policy); Professor of Management; Co-Director, Public Health Modeling Concentration; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health
The objective that guides Dr. Paltiel’s scholarly activities is to promote a reasoned approach to decision making and resource allocation in public health and medicine. Trained in the field of Operations Research, Dr. Paltiel designs and implements policy models and cost-effectiveness analyses. He has a special interest and expertise in HIV/AIDS and has published broadly on the cost-effectiveness of testing, prevention, treatment, and care, both in the United States and around the world.
Alessandra Pappalardi, Dahl Scholar, 2025-2026
Alessandra Pappalardi is a junior studying Political Science and the History of Science, Medicine and Public Health. Passionate about community-building, Alessandra’s time as a Dahl Scholar will be spent alongside her research partner Sabbi Gale-Donnelly studying discussion as a means to achieve social cohesion. The pair will investigate the efficacy of two kinds of dialogue structures – the mock citizen assembly and the pluralist lab – in shaping ideological trust and openness.
Harsh Parikh, Assistant Professor, Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health
Harsh Parikh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health. He leads the Causal Evidence and Decisions Studio (CEADS), developing machine learning-aided causal inference approaches for high-stakes decision-making in complex environments. His research focuses on creating rigorous tools for estimating heterogeneous treatment effects, trustworthy methods that allow domain experts to validate causal assumptions, and domain-conscious approaches that bridge theory and practice.
Sooah Park, ISPS Director's Fellow, 2026
Sooah Park is a junior in Ezra Stiles College studying Political Science with a Global Health Studies certificate. She is interested in the political climate surrounding reproductive and women’s health policy in the U.S., particularly its interactions with partisanship and healthcare accessibility. She has been involved in YaleBleeds, Community Health Educators, and Yale Students for Reproductive Rights to advocate for expansive and inclusive reproductive health policy.
Limor Peer, Associate Director for Research & Strategic Initiatives
Office Location: 24 Hillhouse Avenue
Phone: 203-432-0054
Email: limor.peer@yale.edu
Theophile Penigaud, External Postdoctoral Associate (Sciences Po, Paris)
Théophile Pénigaud is an external postdoctoral fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) at Yale University. Before joining Yale University in July 2023, Dr. Pénigaud earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France). His research focuses on democratic theory, with a particular interest in deliberative democracy, democratic innovations, political epistemology, and the political philosophy of AI.
Area of study: governance and democratic process
Danielle Petrafesa, Financial Assistant
Address: 24 Hillhouse Avenue
Phone: 203-432-9736
Email: danielle.petrafesa@yale.edu;