Kerri Raissian, PhD

I am an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut.  My research focuses on understanding policies and strategies to reduce violence and injury.  I consider myself to be a child and family policy scholar, with an emphasis on understanding how policies reduce family violence and increase family well-being. My research has developed to include work on how to reduce firearm related injury and death – both in an outside of the family. 

 

A hallmark of my work is its interdisciplinary nature. I draw on principles from program evaluation, economic demography, and applied microeconomics. I also employ a team approach to my work and enjoy working with colleagues across disciplines and sectors.

​

I serve as the Director of UConn’s Center for Advancing Research, Methods, and Scholarship in Gun Injury Prevention (ARMS). ARMS is an interdisciplinary research center that facilitates high quality, original gun injury and violence prevention scholarship. I am a Sr. Fellow at the Niskanen Center, wherein I seek the continuous improvement of our criminal justice system through the use of rigorous evidence.  

​

I was a Doris Duke Fellow for the Promotion of Child Well-Being and completed my doctoral degree in Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2013.  

​

I have published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM), Child Maltreatment, Population Research and Policy Review, the European Journal of Ageing, among others.  My paper, “Hold Your Fire: Did the 1996 Federal Gun Control Act Expansion Reduce Domestic Homicides?” was awarded the 2016 Vernon Memorial Prize for the best paper in JPAM.  In 2018, “Heed Neglect: Disrupt Child Maltreatment” – a co-authored paper with Bullinger, Feely, and Schneider, all Doris Duke Fellows - was chosen as EndCAN’s best research paper in their national “Disruption Call”.

 

I enjoy teaching and shaping future public servants.  My courses include financial management for state and local government, quantitative research methods, child and family policy, and introduction to public policy and management.  I have received teaching commendations for outstanding cumulative teaching evaluations from the University of Connecticut’s Provost’s Office on multiple occasions.

 

Prior to academia, I worked with abused adults and children in the government and nonprofit sectors.  I continue to engage with agencies and policymakers both in Connecticut and nationally to continue this work.