Cassandra Dorius

Background

About Cassandra Dorius

My research philosophy revolves around producing high quality, actionable data and results that can be shared with a wide variety of stakeholders to inform family policy and practice. A basic premise of my work is the romantic relationships we form—and the children we have within them—are stratifying forces in society, with some forms providing more advantages or disadvantages than others. My research focuses on vulnerable family groupings with the goal of informing how government and communities might better engage with and support all types of families. My research sits at the seam between what we know about family forms from national surveys, and the ‘hidden’ populations of families that are prevalent in the modern world (and administrative data). My goal is to provide quantitative evidence about the diversity of modern family life so policies and services can better meet ‘real world’ needs. As part of my research agenda, I partner with state agencies and local communities to help them better utilize their own data and expertise to inform decision making and policy related to families.