Vanessa R. Wight, PhD

wight@nccp.org
Senior Research Associate, Demography
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Dr. Vanessa Wight is a family demographer with an interest in family processes related to children’s outcomes. Her research has focused on questions of whether early childhood experiences, such as the home environment and exposure to involved parenting, are related to children’s health and well-being and whether these experiences have consequences for children’s subsequent parenting behaviors in adulthood. She is currently an affiliate with Columbia University Population Research Center.

Before joining NCCP, Vanessa held a joint appointment as a postdoctoral research fellow in the University of Maryland’s Family Science and Human Development departments. During her fellowship, Vanessa worked on an NICHD-funded project examining the causes and consequences of parenting practices, with a focus on men and fathering. Her research has been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.

At NCCP Vanessa will conduct demographic research on child poverty and its implications for policies at the national and state levels. Her responsibilities involve analyzing and managing large-scale data sets, designing and implementing studies, and leading a range of new demographic projects.

Vanessa received her PhD in sociology from the University of Maryland.