Providing grants for outstanding social policy research since 1997
Meet the Foundation
Mary Curtis Horowitz & Dr. Irving Louis Horowitz, Founders
The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy was established in 1997 by Irving Louis Horowitz and Mary Curtis Horowitz and has been funded by contributions from them since its inception. The Foundation received approval as a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization in 1998. The Foundation's general purpose is to support the advancement of research and understanding in the major fields of the social sciences. Its specific purpose is to provide small grants to aspiring PhD students at the dissertation level to support the research they are undertaking for their project.
The idea for the Foundation emerged from Irving Louis Horowitz’s experience working with doctoral students. He found that many faced financial barriers to completing their research. Dr. Horowitz initially provided assistance to these scholars personally, and later through Transaction Publishers’ Grants-in-Publication Program. After the termination of that program, the foundation was established in 1997. The first grants were issued in 1999.
Dr. Irving Louis Horowitz, 1968
Board of Trustees
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
Irving Louis Horowitz (1929–2012)
Founding Chairman
Rutgers University
Irving Louis Horowitz was a co-founder of the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy and helped shape its enduring commitment to supporting emerging scholars whose research advances understanding of important social issues. He was a distinguished sociologist, political scientist, publisher, and public intellectual. He served as Hannah Arendt Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Rutgers University and was Chairman of the Board and Editorial Director of Transaction Publishers. A prolific scholar, Dr. Horowitz authored more than 50 books and hundreds of articles and essays spanning political theory, public policy, education, academic affairs, and publishing. His work was translated into multiple languages and earned widespread recognition. Throughout his career, he received numerous honors and awards for his intellectual and civic contributions. In recognition of his enduring impact on scholarship and publishing, Penn State University established the Irving Louis Horowitz–Transaction Publishers Archives, which documents the growth and development of social science research and publishing over more than half a century.
Mary Curtis Horowitz
Founder and Former Chair (2012-2023)
Transaction Publishers (President, 1997-2017)
Mary Curtis Horowitz was a co-founder of the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy. She served as the Foundation’s first Vice Chair and later as Chair from 2012 to 2023, providing dedicated leadership and helping to advance the Foundation’s mission of supporting emerging scholars in the social sciences. During her nearly 50 years in publishing, she was President of Transaction Publishers until its sale to Taylor & Francis in 2017. Prior to her work at Transaction, she was Vice President at Wiley Publishers, and Editorial Director of Praeger Publishers, at that time part of CBS Publishing. She now serves on the boards of several other not for profit organizations, and is on the National Council of the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Ayse Akincigil
Chair
Rutgers University
Ayse Akincigil, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work. She is also Director of the Health Services Research Branch of the Hub for Aging Collaboration and a Core Member of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research. Dr. Akincigil is a health economist whose research focuses on health services, aging, health care access, quality of care, and the experiences of older adults and individuals with serious illness. Her work combines advanced econometric methods with large-scale Medicare and survey data to examine health care utilization, costs, outcomes, and disparities in care. More recently, she has expanded her research to palliative and end-of-life care, drawing on both personal caregiving experiences and collaborations with leading oncology and palliative care researchers. A dedicated scholar and mentor, Dr. Akincigil leads a research program centered on rigorous, reproducible methods and interdisciplinary collaboration. She serves on the advisory board of the Goals of Care Coalition of New Jersey, where she contributes to efforts to improve access to palliative care and advance policies that support patients and families. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Rutgers University, specializing in Econometrics and Health Economics.
Maggie Schneiderman
Vice Chair
National Geographic Society
Maggie Schneiderman is a Major Gifts Officer at the National Geographic Society and has over 10 years of experience in individual philanthropy and nonprofit board management. Prior to joining National Geographic, she worked at the Field Museum as the Women's Board Manager and has held development roles at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and Lincoln Park Zoo. Maggie studied Religion and Philosophy at Bucknell University and earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. She lives in Chicago, IL.
Jonathan D. Breul
Treasurer
Georgetown University
Jonathan Breul worked at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 22 years, including as a Senior Executive who played an instrumental role in the development and implementation of presidential management agendas and efforts to increase the use of performance information. Later he was Executive Director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government and a Partner in IBM Global Business Services. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), was for six years a member of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Oversight Advisory Committee, and for many years taught graduate courses at the McCourt School of Public Policy. He is now retired.
Richard L. Edwards
Trustee Emeritus
Rutgers University
Richard L. Edwards, Ph.D., is Chancellor Emeritus of Rutgers University--New Brunswick, where he had earlier served as Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and as Dean of the School of Social Work. Previously, Edwards served at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as Interim Provost, as Dean of the School of Social Work, and as Distinguished Professor. Prior to that, he served as Dean of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and as Acting Dean at the School of Social Welfare at the State University of New York at Albany. His teaching and research interests focused on nonprofit management, social policy issues, and global affairs. His publications include twenty books he authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited. He served as a Fulbright Scholar in Israel and had numerous trips to Hungary, Romania, China, and other countries as part of research grants and consultation activities.
Ray C. Rist,
Trustee Emeritus
The World Bank
Ray C. Rist is a distinguished international scholar and leader in evaluation, governance, and results-based management. He is a former senior official of the World Bank, having served in the Independent Evaluation Group, and is widely recognized for his contributions to monitoring and evaluation systems used by governments and development organizations around the world. He is a co-founder and co-director of the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET), one of the leading professional training programs in development evaluation. Over the course of a career spanning academia, government, and international development, Dr. Rist has advised organizations and national governments on designing and implementing results-based monitoring and evaluation systems. His professional experience includes senior appointments in the U.S. government, academic positions at leading universities, and leadership roles within the World Bank. He is the author or editor of more than 30 books and over 150 scholarly articles and has lectured extensively throughout the world on evaluation, governance, accountability, and public sector performance. Dr. Rist has also provided long-standing leadership to the international evaluation community, serving as President of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) and contributing to numerous professional journals and research initiatives. Through his work with the World Bank, IDEAS, and numerous governments and organizations around the world, he has helped advance the use of evidence and evaluation in public policy and development practice.
Hans-Martin Boehmer
Trustee
Duke University
Hans-Martin Boehmer holds a Ph.D. in economics from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Bonn, Germany. He is currently a faculty member at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Duke Center for International Development. Previously, he spent over 20 years at the World Bank Group holding senior positions in areas related to social policy, corporate strategy, and evaluation. During that time, he spearheaded global programs on education, health and social protection. He has worked with governments on economic and social policy in over 30 countries from the Caribbean and Latin America to Africa and Asia.
Michal Grinstein-Weiss
Trustee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, PhD, MA, MSW, is the Executive Director of the Myers JDC Brookdale Institute, Israel, a Full Professor at the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution in the United States and is on the board of trustees of The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy. In her previous esteemed positions, Professor Grinstein-Weiss served as the Shanti K. Khinduka Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Policy Initiatives at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, the founding director of the university- wide Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, the founding director of the Centene Center for Health Transformation, and an advisor for the Financial Inclusion Working Group for the Clinton Global Initiative-America. Grinstein Weiss’ work is focused on improving health and socioeconomic mobility, addressing inequalities in health, financial security, education, and housing, particularly those in low-income households. In Israel, Professor Grinstein-Weiss spearheaded the creation and implementation of the Savings for Every Child legislation, a national policy which establishes a seeded savings account for all children as of 2017.
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Mary M. McKay
Trustee
Washington University in St. Louis
Mary M. McKay is the Executive Vice Provost at Washington University in St. Louis. In this role, she works to enhance interdisciplinary research and education across the campus and to build the collaborations needed to ensure the successful implementation of the university’s strategic plan. With over 200 publications, Dean McKay brings a wealth of critical scholarship and leadership in the areas of poverty, mental health and the health- prevention needs of poverty-impacted youth and families. Prior to joining Washington University in St. Louis, Dean McKay was the McSilver Professor of Social Work and the inaugural director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University's Silver School of Social Work.
Peter Moskos
Trustee
John Jay College of New Jersey
Peter Moskos is a professor in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Moskos, a Princeton and Harvard trained sociologist, is the author of four books, the most recent being Back from the Brink, an oral history about NYC’s 1990s crime drop. He is a former Baltimore City Police Officer and the director of John Jay College’s NYPD Executive Master’s Leadership Program.
Nandini Ramanujam
Trustee
McGill University
Nandini Ramanujam is a Professor and the Co-Director and Director of Programs of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University's Faculty of Law. Her research and teaching interests include Law and Sustainable Development, Rule of law with a focus on institutions and governance, Economic Justice, Food Security, as well as the exploration of interconnections between field based human rights work and theoretical discourses. She has a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University.
William M. Rodgers III
Trustee
Federal Reserve
William M. Rodgers III is vice president of Community Development Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Before joining the St. Louis Fed, he served as a professor of public policy at the Bloustein School for Planning and Public Policy and the chief economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. Rogers’ research interests and areas of expertise include economic mobility, compensation, labor markets and general economic trends. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and served as the academy’s board chair from 2016 to 2021. In 2024, the organization awarded Rodgers the Robert Ball Award for Outstanding Contributions in Social Insurance. Previously, Rogers was a nonresident fellow at The Century Foundation and has served in many public capacities, including on former President Barack Obama’s Department of Labor transition team and as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2000 to 2001. He served on the National Economic Association Board and is a past president. Other roles in which Rodgers has served include as treasurer of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a member of the U.S. board of United Way Worldwide, and a member of the board of trustees of McDaniel College. He was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s expert panel to evaluate the quality of compensation data collected from U.S. employers by the EEOC. Rodgers has published articles in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, The Review of Black Political Economy, International Migration, and Family Economics and Nutrition Review. He edited the book Handbook on the Economics of Discrimination, which was selected by Choice, the review journal of the American Library Association, as an Outstanding Academic Book of 2006. Rodgers has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Financial Times, and many other publications. He has been a guest on numerous television and radio shows, including MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, CNBC and NPR’s Marketplace, Weekend Edition and America Amplified.
William Strong
Trustee
Kotin Crabtree & Strong
William Strong is an attorney whose practice focuses on copyright and trademark law, as well as related publishing matters including defamation and false advertising. He advises clients on intellectual property registration, licensing, transactional issues, dispute resolution, and litigation. Throughout his career, he has represented a diverse range of clients in the publishing and creative industries, including publishers, authors, trade associations, curriculum developers, and literary agents. In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Strong served as an Adjunct Professor of Copyright Law at Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law) from 1987 to 1996. He also maintains a long-standing interest in estate planning, working closely with clients and serving as trustee for numerous trusts.
Jos Vaessen
Trustee
World Bank
Jos Vaessen is Chief Evaluation Officer and Senior Adviser at the Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank. Since 1998 he has been involved in evaluation research activities, first as an academic and consultant to bilateral and multilateral development organizations and from 2011 to 2016 as a lead evaluator at UNESCO. Between 2016 and 2024 he has worked at the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group as evaluation adviser. He established and led IEG's Methods Team (2016-2022) and in collaboration with other colleagues and institutional partners, contributed to establishing the Global Evaluation Initiative, a global partnership to strengthen M&E systems and capacities. In 2024-2025 Jos was Principal Advisor at the Office of Evaluation and Oversight at the Inter-American Development Bank. Jos has taught evaluation-related courses at the University of Antwerp (2002-2010), Maastricht University (2010-2012), the International Program for Development Evaluation (2016-present) as well as various other institutions. Jos has been author of several internationally peer-reviewed publications, including three books. Notable examples of his publications are: Impact evaluations and development – NONIE guidance on impact evaluation (2009, with Frans Leeuw; World Bank), Mind the gap: perspectives on policy evaluation and the social sciences (2009, with Frans Leeuw; Transaction Publishers), Dealing with complexity in development evaluation: a practical approach (2015, with Michael Bamberger and Estelle Raimondo; SAGE Publications), Evaluation of international development interventions: an overview of approaches and methods (2020; with Sebastian Lemire and Barbara Befani; World Bank). Jos regularly serves on reference groups of evaluations for different institutions.
Ryan Watkins
Trustee
George Washington University
Ryan Watkins is a Professor of Educational Technology at the George Washington University in Washington DC. He teaches and does research on the application of intelligent technologies in classrooms and workplaces. He is an author of 12 books and 100+ articles on topics including needs assessment, instructional design, and the use of AI in scientific research.
Allison Zippay
Trustee
Rutgers University
Allison Zippay, PhD is Professor at the Rutgers University School of Social Work. Her research focuses on community planning, community practice, and the ways that place-based factors and social connections shape economic opportunity and access to social services for low-income populations. Dr. Zippay’s research has examined community responses to special-needs housing, including a National Institute of Mental Health–funded study exploring how communities and service agencies plan and locate psychiatric housing. This work identified “geographies of opportunity” that support social inclusion and examined factors associated with community opposition to supportive housing. Her broader research interests include resource mobilization, employment, and economic opportunity among disadvantaged groups. In addition to her research, Dr. Zippay has held leadership roles at Rutgers, including serving as Associate Dean for Curriculum, and participated in the Harvard University Institute for Higher Education’s Management Development Program. She teaches graduate courses in social policy and management and is the recipient of the Rutgers University Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching.