Donna Ruane Morrison, is Associate Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University as well as faculty affiliate of the Center for Research in Children in the U.S. and the Department of Psychology. She is also a Research Affiliate of the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research. Morrison’s research investigates how the interplay of socio-economic circumstances and public policy influences the well-being of children and families. Before the start of her academic career, Morrison served as a Senior Research Associate at Child Trends, where she contributed to numerous interdisciplinary program evaluations including, the observational study component of the New Chance Demonstration project, a congressionally-mandated study of Chapter 1, and a national program to promote family-volunteering sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation. Morrison has written extensively about risk factors to child development including instability in living arrangements, poverty, welfare receipt, and teen parenthood with research support from government agencies including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute for Mental Health, and the U.S. Department of Education, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services.

In her most recent work, Morrison has explored issues salient to the pro-marriage welfare reform agenda. Using longitudinal data to track the subsequent experiences of children born to unmarried parents, she has documented that although there is a minimal economic benefit to children if their parents eventually formalize the union, the stability provided by marriage is substantial. In responses to changes in Supplemental Security Income policies for children and the work requirements of TANF, Morrison teamed with fellow GPPI colleague, Jean Mitchell, to investigate the barriers to maternal employment faced by low-income mothers raising children with special health care needs. Morrison has also made significant contributions to the scholarly literature on the effects of divorce and remarriage on child well-being, with publications in the American Sociological Review, Demography and Journal of Marriage and the Family, among others.

Morrison serves on Technical Review Panels for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort, the National Assessment of Education Progress and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. At Georgetown she teaches the following courses: Child Development and Public Policy, Family Demography, Children and the Law, Survey Research Methods, Regression Analysis for Policy Makers and the Thesis Workshop.

Morrison resides in Maryland with her husband and best friend, David Morrison and their daughter, Rachel.