Jessica Sperling Smokoski

Jessica Sperling, Ph.D., serves as the Lead of the Applied Research, Evaluation, & Engagement area in Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute. She is dedicated to informing and improving initiatives through responsive and collaborative research, evaluation, and research/practice partnership. At Duke, her work has focused on education, healthcare delivery, diversity/inequality, and innovation/pilot programming; this has included partnerships with entities based in Duke University, Duke Health, and community / non-profit organizations. In addition to serving as a practitioner of applied research and evaluation, she is active in teaching and capacity-building in these areas. She has taught research and evaluation methods courses and has developed and led numerous evaluation trainings serving non-profit, education, and healthcare sectors. Prior to joining SSRI, she worked in research and evaluation in higher education and non-profits in New York City. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.