To Disseminate Widely
Joyce Foundation grant expands IPR policy briefing series

Fall 2005, Volume 27, Number 1

	Therese McGuire moderates a Policy briefing.

Throughout its 37-year history, the Institute for Policy Research has hewn closely to its core mission of producing policy-relevant research and disseminating its research results as widely as possible. A two-year grant from the Joyce Foundation is expanding and enhancing the institute’s policy briefing series, one of its key dissemination vehicles.

The grant has enabled IPR to organize three policy briefings per year, with two taking place in downtown Chicago and a third in Washington, D.C. The 90-minute briefings take place over lunch and are open to the public.

“Much of the policy-relevant research and data generated by universities never reaches those most in need of it, namely federal, state, and local policymakers,” said Larry Hansen, vice president of the foundation. “As a result, many important decisions are often driven more by anecdotes or ideological considerations than empirically based evidence. IPR’s policy briefings represent a promising effort to address this all too common shortcoming.”

“The briefings allow researchers and the public the opportunity to engage in two-way, mutually beneficial dialogue,” said Therese McGuire, who directs the policy briefing series. “It gives the experts on-the-ground insights that allow them to refine their research. And it gives policymakers, advocates, journalists, students, and other attendees the chance to hear and talk about the implications of the latest research and thinking on a particular topic.” McGuire is an IPR faculty fellow and professor of management and strategy at Kellogg.

IPR has run three of its policy briefings under the auspices of the Joyce Foundation grant: Shaping our Children’s Destinies: How Policies in Child Welfare, Education, and Health Are Affecting At-Risk Children; Inside the Black Box of Schools: Classrooms, Teachers, and School Leaders; and The Prison Effect: Consequences of Mass Incarceration for the U.S. The topics reflect IPR faculty expertise and pressing areas of policy concern.

If you would like more information about the policy briefings, to view past ones, or to join IPR’s mailing list, please visit www.northwestern.edu/ipr/events. The briefings also have been rebroadcast on the Illinois Channel, a public events station.