Rachel A. Gordon, PhD

Rachel A. Gordon is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Senior Scholar at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Drawing on multiple disciplines and methods, Gordon’s research has broadly examined contextual, social, and policy factors that affect children and families. She has studied early child care and education, parental employment, multigenerational families, neighborhood dynamics, youth peer groups, and appearance-related identity cues. She is the author of two textbooks (Regression Analysis for the Social Sciences; Applied Statistics for the Social and Health Sciences, both published by Routledge) and has published her research in leading academic journals including the American Journal of Evaluation, Child Development, Criminology, Demography, Developmental Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Throughout her career, Gordon has worked at the intersection of academic research and social policy, including through directing the Illinois Family Impact Seminars for a decade and launching the Illinois chapter of NEW Leadership with the Conference of Women Legislators of the Illinois General Assembly. Her research has been funded by numerous sources including, IES, NIH, and NSF. Her most recent intellectual pursuits aim to: (a) advance understanding regarding the cost, quality, adaptability, and ownership of products whose creation and use are publicly funded, and, (b) enrich understanding of the ways in which aspects of visible appearance affect individuals' feelings of social connectedness and experiences of inequities.