Team directory

Adam Meirowitz, Damon Wells Professor of Political Science

Adam Meirowitz is the Damon Wells Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Prior to that he was the Kem C. Gardner Professor of Finance in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah where he taught from 2015-2022. Before that he was the John Work Garrett Professor of Politics at Princeton University, where he taught between 2002 and 2015. Meirowitz’s research focuses on the application of game theory to the study of governance and collective decision-making.

Mellissa Meisels, Postdoctoral Associate

Mellissa Meisels is a postdoctoral associate in ISPS’s Center for the Study of American Politics. In 2025, she will join Yale’s Department of Political Science as an assistant professor. She earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University, where she was affiliated with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Previously, she was a Democracy Center Visiting Scholar at the University of Rochester and earned her B.A.

Araya Miller, ISPS Director's Fellow 2025

Araya Miller is a junior at Yale College majoring in Political Science and pursuing an Education Studies Certificate. She is passionate about working directly with communities to develop innovative ways to reform the criminal legal system and reduce mass incarceration in America. She views quality education as a potential solution to various social inequalities and has made strides to make education more accessible to marginalized communities.

Genesis N. Luigi Bravo, ISPS Graduate Policy Fellow 2025

Génesis is a Ph.D. student in Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her work focuses on understanding how social movements, technology, and expertise influence people’s experiences with healthcare. Her academic and professional practice nurtures from her work as an advocate with a decade of experience in grassroots feminist organizing. Her last research project “Becoming abortion experts: making and transforming the professional boundaries of abortion care in Mexico” explores how the use of abortion medication reshapes notions of expertise in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Chima Ndumele, Associate Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)

Chima Ndumele is an Associate Professor of Public Health (Health Policy) at the Yale School of Public Health. His research is focused on better understanding factors which influence the way vulnerable populations connect with and access health care resources. Specifically, he conducts work in three areas. The first examines how changes in local policy environment impact the care received by Medicaid enrollees. The second area explores how safety-net organizations can improve health care services delivery.

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.