Lydia Wileden

Assistant Research Professor

Lydia Wileden is an Assistant Research Professor in the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP) within the UConn School of Public Policy. She received her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Sociology from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and was previously a postdoctoral researcher with the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago.

As an urban sociologist, Lydia is interested in understanding and creating new ways to measure neighborhood quality that realistically capture how people assess and make decisions about the places they live. Her research combines large-scale resident surveys with administrative data to investigate the complex and often misaligned relationship between how residents think about and how researchers and governments measure neighborhoods. For example, a recent project examined why many people believe crime to be rising while administrative data suggests that crime has dropped precipitously over time. Lydia is especially interested in how this mismatch between lived experience and data shapes public policy and reproduces spatial inequality.

Lydia approaches her work with the goal of making research accessible for policy makers and general audiences. She has produced dozens of public-facing reports, published op-eds, and given public lectures on topics including home repair, employment, blight, and the impacts of COVID-19. Her reports have been widely quoted by the media including the Associated Press and Newsweek and have been cited in policy debates including Detroit’s Resolution in Support of the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2021 and philanthropic efforts to fund home repair programs.

Lydia is excited to lend her research expertise to a range of IMRP and SPP projects, drawing on her background in government including prior positions with Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, NeighborWorks America, and the White House Office of Urban Affairs.

Lydia is a lifelong (not fair weather) Michigan Wolverines football fan, was written about as a “hapless congressional staffer” in a New Yorker article, twice performed with the Moscow Ballet, and is a cat person who owns a dog (a pit-mix she lovingly refers to as a “Detroit special”). She was born and raised in Western MA and is happy to be back in New England.

Education

Ph.D. Public Policy and Sociology, University of Michigan, 2022
M.A. Sociology, University of Michigan, 2017
B.A. Urban Studies, Human Rights, Barnard College, Columbia University 2011

Teaching & Research Interests

Urban Policy
Neighborhood Change
Quantitative Research Methods
Survey Research
Policy and Program Evaluation