IGPA welcomes new faculty member

IGPA is happy to welcome Nicole Kazee as its newest faculty member. She is an assistant professor of political science and is jointly appointed with the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Kazee, who earned her PhD from Yale University in May 2009, joined the faculty in Department of Political Science at University of Illinois at Chicago and will be jointly appointed with IGPA. She assumed her new position today (Aug. 17).

Kazee (pronounced Kuh-ZEE) researches American politics and policymaking, focusing currently on state and national health reform, as well as the anti-tax movement and its effect on state policy choices. She engages in both social science and applied policy research and writing.

“A joint appointment with political science and IGPA is the rare kind of position that allows me to live in both worlds,” she said.

Kazee’s research has been supported by full-year fellowships from the Brookings Institution, the Miller Center of Public Affairs, and PEO International. Kazee was also a fellow at Demos in New York.

“We are very pleased that Nicole Kazee is joining the IGPA faculty,” said Robert F. Rich, director of IGPA. “She will make important contributions and is strongly committed to public engagement. She represents an excellent fit with the mission of IGPA.”

Kazee’s dissertation, titled “Wal-Mart Welfare: The Role of Low-Wage Employers in American Antipoverty Policy,” examined the contemporary policymaking process in the states, using health care programs for the poor to explore the factors that shape variation in legislative decisions.

“I'm thrilled to be joining the institute, and to be working alongside such an impressive group of scholars,” Kazee said.