Leadership Changes in the Population Research Institute
Press Release - November 10, 2005
Leif Jensen has announced his intention to step down from his current position as director of the Population Research Institute (PRI) at the end of his current term, June 30. Nancy Landale, professor of sociology and demography, has been named the incoming director of PRI, and will begin her term on July 1.
PRI has flourished under Jensen's directorship, according to Karen Bierman, director of the Social Science Research Institute. Through the 2005 fiscal year, PRI was awarded new grants and contracts totaling $35 million, complementing the 680 publications produced by PRI Associates in the past funding cycle. Of particular note, under Jensen's leadership, PRI membership has grown in its interdisciplinary representation, with faculty associates now representing 17 departments in seven colleges. A sixth department (Health Policy and Administration) joined the dual-degree graduate program in demography sponsored by PRI, and the College of Medicine became an additional institutional partner, joining the collaborative participation of the colleges of Liberal Arts, Health and Human Development, Agricultural Sciences, Education, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and the Eberly College of Science. In addition to providing administrative leadership in PRI, Jensen, professor of rural sociology and demography, studies social stratification and the sociology of economic development. His ongoing research program explores rural poverty and underemployment, the circumstances of teenagers in the families of migrant farm workers, Dominican immigrants in new destination communities and patterns of spatial inequality in Latin American countries. Jensen will return to teaching and conducting research.
Landale's research interests are on family patterns and health outcomes among racial and ethnic minorities. Currently, she directs a multi-investigator NICHD-funded project, "Family Formation in an Era of Family Change." Landale is a long-standing faculty associate of PRI, and has served previously as associate director.
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This press release courtesy of Penn State's Department of Public Information
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