Bio: Dr. Nicholas Mark is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. His primary research agenda is focused on understanding how social policy and contextual stressors influence health and fertility. He develops and employs novel methodology to examine the effects of policies, environments, and events on family outcomes, with emphasis on variation by race/ethnicity and age. Some of his published work estimates the effects of federal funding for sex education on teen birth rates, and work in progress estimates the effects of the Great Recession on cohort measures of fertility.In addition to his research on health and fertility, he maintains a secondary focus on racial inequality in education, with particular attention to the links between the educational and criminal justice systems. Recent projects explore the effects of contact with the police on student outcomes, and the role of school choice systems in the unequal distribution of students to schools.
