Faculty Expert Profile

Stefanie DeLuca studies how experiences in social settings like neighborhoods and schools shape the outcomes of disadvantaged families and young people, and how policy interventions can increase their opportunities. Her current projects focus on a major housing policy experiment and a major financial aid experiment, the school-to-work trajectories of community college students, and the role of communities in explaining changes in economic mobility in the U.S. by race and class. While her research brings a sociological perspective to the evaluation of education and housing policy, many of her studies also involve interdisciplinary collaborations. She deploys rigorous research designs that combine experimental, non-experimental, and qualitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of social policies and understand the mechanisms that underlie causal effects.

DeLuca conducts mixed-methods studies that incorporate qualitative research into experimental or quasi-experimental designs. Some of her work focuses on the long-term effects of programs to help low-income families relocate to safer neighborhoods and better schools through housing vouchers. Based on some of this work with young adults in the Baltimore site of the Moving to Opportunity program, Stefanie wrote the book Coming of Age in the Other America (with Susan Clampet-Lundquist and Kathryn Edin), which was named an Outstanding Academic Title from the American Library Association, and won the William F. Goode Award from the American Sociological Association.

DeLuca's research has been made possible by generous support from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Spencer Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Abell Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, National Academy of Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Department of Education, among others.

DeLuca contributes frequently to national and local media, including The Atlantic, The Baltimore Sun, The Economist, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio. She has been invited to share her research to support policy recommendations at the federal level at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services, and has provided briefings and testimony for several state legislatures and in federal court on behalf of the plaintiffs in the Baltimore Thompson v. HUD housing desegregation case. She currently serves on a Federal Research Advisory Commission at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Her other awards and honors include the Publicly Engaged Scholar Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, Scholar of the Year by the National Alliance of Resident Services in Assisted and Affordable Housing, William T. Grant Faculty Scholars Award, Johns Hopkins University Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award, and election to the Sociological Research Association.

Poverty and Inequality Research Lab: https://otheramerica.org/