Lucy Sorensen

Specialization: Education and Social Policy

Lucy Sorensen is an Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY, and a Faculty Fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. She received her PhD from Duke University in the Sanford School of Public Policy. Prior to that, she received a Master’s degree in Economics from Duke University and a Bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies and Economics from Yale University.

Dr. Sorensen conducts research exploring interactions between education policy and human development, with a focus on how policy interventions can reduce educational and economic inequality. She uses large longitudinal datasets to evaluate K-12 school policies and examine the determinants of individuals’ academic, social-emotional, and health developmental trajectories. Her recent studies take advantage of a variety of quasi-experimental and computational methods. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed education policy and economics journals, presented at national policy research conferences, and covered by news outlets such as NPR and Education Week.

At Rockefeller College Dr. Sorensen currently teaches RPAD 503 Principles of Public Economics, RPAD 643 Economics of Government Programs, and RPAD 725 Advanced Applied Quantitative Methods.