Eric has extensive experience identifying, measuring, and reducing administrative burdens in safety net services. At Georgetown, his work primarily focuses on two areas: 1) evaluation of tech adoption and use on public services and 2) development of open source software for privacy-preserving data sharing. Previously, he was Senior Director of Data Science at Code for America (CfA), a nonprofit where he spent six years building capacity for data analysis, quantitative research, and rigorous experimentation. Eric also oversaw the creation of a knowledge base that synthesized internal and external research on what works in safety net delivery. He initiated many academic collaborations in order to scale the impact of CfA's interventions by credibly demonstrating their efficacy. Eric was a key member of the team that raised $100M in Audacious funding that led to the formation of CfA's Safety Net Innovation Lab.
Eric has run field experiments across several topics in benefits access, such as the effects of providing chatbot suggestions about benefits rules to outreach workers on accuracy, the impact of offering flexible interview times for SNAP, how to reduce the burden and increase the accuracy of income questions on benefits forms, and optimizing text and email campaigns to renew benefits or cross-promote programs. At the California Department of Justice, he worked on data de-identification as well as designing and implementing a field experiment that informed regulations for the 2015 Racial Identity and Profiling Act.
Eric’s published research has won several awards, including the American Journal of Public Health Best Paper Award and the Behavioral Science & Policy Best Paper Award. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a UC Regents Intern Fellow. His dissertation relied on surveys to examine changing sources of social support among Bay Area residents from 1970s to the mid 2010s. Before turning to research, Eric worked at small and large tech companies and received his B.A. and M.S. from Stanford University.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Associate Research Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy