The UI Public Policy Center made changes to its program areas and program leadership, and has announced four new directors.

Dave Cwiertny is the new director of the Environmental Policy Research Program. Cwiertny is an associate professor in civil and environmental engineering and a core faculty member in the campuswide Water Sustainability Initiative. His research program broadly focuses on pollutant fate in natural and engineered systems, with particular expertise related to emerging pollutant transformation pathways and the development of nanomaterial-based treatment technologies that promote water sustainability.

Tracy Osborn is the director of the newly formed Politics and Policy Research Program. She is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science. Her research focuses on women and politics in U.S. state legislatures, Congress, and political behavior.

Sarah Bruch is the director of the newly formed Social and Education Research Program. Bruch is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology. Her research focuses on the processes and policies that ameliorate or exacerbate social inequalities and she studies the political and civic consequences of social policy designs, U.S. safety net policies, and authority relations and racial dynamics within schools.

Fred Boehmke is the new director of the Iowa Social Science Research Center. His research focuses on the diffusion of public policies across the American states and on the consequences of direct democracy on state politics. Boehmke has been serving as the interim director of the ISRC since May 2015 and was previously the director of the Social Science Policy Research Program.