Institute Realigns Leadership to Focus on Emerging Research Topics in Health, Education, Fiscal Analysis, and Other Pressing Public Policy Issues

Albany, NY — The Rockefeller Institute of Government has named Dr. Patricia Strach as its new director for policy and research. Dr. Strach leads a realignment of top leadership as the Institute develops new research programs and priorities to inform better public policy with evidence-based research and analysis. 

“Dr. Strach is an accomplished public policy researcher whose comprehensive method goes beyond the numbers to humanize the issue and see how people are influenced by often distant public policy decisions,” said Rockefeller Institute President Jim Malatras. “As director for policy and research at the Rockefeller Institute, she, along with the new leadership team, will help bring that unique perspective to all of our work. This is one of the strongest leadership teams the Institute has ever had, and I’m excited to work with them to continue the Institute’s rigorous and objective approach to cutting-edge public policy analysis.”
 
Dr. Strach previously served as deputy director for policy and research. Among other projects, she has led Stories from Sullivan, the Institute’s in-depth, long-term study of the opioid epidemic in rural Sullivan County, New York. The research combines on-the-ground interviews with aggregate data analysis to provide a detailed portrayal of how the growing opioid crisis affects rural communities and how local governments are responding.
 
In addition to her new role at the Rockefeller Institute, Dr. Strach is a professor in the departments of political science and public administration and policy at the University at Albany. She is the author of “Hiding Politics in Plain Sight: Cause Marketing, Corporate Influence, and Breast Cancer Policymaking,” “All in the Family: The Private Roots of American Public Policy,” and articles appearing in Political Research Quarterly, Journal of Policy History, Polity, and American Politics Research. In 2008-2010 she was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at Harvard University. She received her doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004.
 
In addition to Dr. Strach, the Institute has made several other changes in the leadership team to focus on emerging research topics, particularly in health, education, and fiscal analysis. They include:
 
Dr. Katie Zuber, assistant director for policy and research, will work closely with Dr. Strach to manage the Institute’s research agenda. Dr. Zuber was named executive director of the new Center for Law & Policy Solutions, which examines how law and policy intersect to shape communities and lives. Working with research interns from the University at Albany, the center has examined the role of drug treatment courts in addressing the opioid crisis, and is currently studying reproductive freedom in New York State as the Supreme Court becomes more conservative.
 
Heather Trela, chief of staff at the Rockefeller Institute, has been named an Institute fellow. She will serve as the Institute’s chief operating officer as well as expand on her timely research on the nuances of federalism through policies like the legalization of marijuana at the state and federal levels, which has helped shed light on potential policy conflicts that will only grow as more states move toward legalization.
 
Kyle Adams joined the Rockefeller Institute in 2017 as director of communications. He has overseen a broad effort to connect the Institute’s valuable research with a wider audience to help both policymakers and the public understand the decisions that shape their lives, including the launch of a new website, the use of visual and interactive data tools, and a multimedia approach that helps tell the stories of the people and communities behind the research.
 
Dr. Laura Schultz, a longtime fellow at the Institute, was named director of fiscal analysis and senior economist. She will continue to expand the Institute’s influential, nationally recognized fiscal studies program, including analyses of state and federal balance of payments, and lead new research into economic programs and their impacts on jobs and the economy, among other topics.
 
Michelle Cummings is joining the Institute as a fiscal policy analyst. She has previously served as the deputy commissioner and director of tax and fiscal studies at the New York Department of Taxation and Finance/Office of Tax Policy Analysis and brings a deep understanding of federal and state tax policy and other fiscal matters.
 
Dr. Thomas Gais, who previously served as director for policy and research, will remain with the Institute as a senior fellow to coordinate the Institute’s large-scale, grant-funded projects, including a national, multiagency education data systems project. He will also focus on rebuilding the Institute’s health policy studies program, a critical area of research as the nation faces rapid and complex changes in federal and state health policies.

Dr. Elizabeth Pérez-Chiqués recently joined the Institute as a visiting fellow, working closely with Dr. Strach and Dr. Zuber on the Institute’s study of the opioid epidemic in New York State.

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