Because Constituents Have the Power to Hold Elected Officials Accountable: Reflections from COSSA’s 2026 Social Science Advocacy Day

On March 23-24, 2026, over 85 social and behavioral science researchers, students, and advocates from 24 different states participated in Social Science Advocacy Day. This annual event brings together advocates from across the country to discuss with Members of Congress and their staff the importance of prioritizing funding for federal agencies and programs that support social and behavioral science research. Below are reflections from three advocates who participated: Katherine M. Robiadek, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Core Faculty in the honors program in "Philosophy, Politics, and the Public" at Xavier University; Jessica Rich, research faculty in the College of Science at Virginia Tech; and Lilliauna Hopkins, PhD Candidate and instructor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

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Because Our Work Helps Us Envision and Build a Better Future

We live in an era of rapidly expanding economic inequality, humanitarian crises, chaotic deportation efforts, the militarization of U.S. cities, global conflicts and wars, burdensome labor practices that undermine work-life balance, and continued attempts to erode rights and protections of women, racial and ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ+ people. We also face ongoing environmental catastrophes, with additional consequential environmental challenges looming on the horizon. Social science provides a window to understand such issues and offers tools that can help us create more equitable policies to address these social problems. Every day, sociologists and other social scientists put research into action and ideas into impact in ways that help improve our collective future and build pathways toward more just outcomes.

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Because Research-Informed Policy Strengthens Children and Families

The path from research to policy is rarely straightforward; it takes collaboration between researchers and policymakers at every stage. In child-centered policymaking, where the goal is to improve the lives of children and families, these partnerships are especially vital. Evidence helps policymakers better understand complex issues and identify effective solutions, while researchers gain the opportunity to demonstrate the value of their work in addressing real-world challenges.

At the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), we strengthen these connections every day. By facilitating dialogue and mutual respect between researchers and policymakers, we ensure that families benefit from policies grounded in evidence. This bridging work is not abstract— it directly shapes programs and decisions that promote children’s healthy development and well-being.

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Because Reimagining Science Requires Behavioral and Social Scientists at the Table, Too

Nearly 40% of deaths in the United States are preventable through changes in behavior. Modifiable risk factors like smoking, poor diet, inactivity, or alcohol use are contributors to many cancers. For children and teens ages 1 to 17, the leading cause of death is not disease…it’s gun violence. These are not problems with strictly biomedical solutions. They are deeply embedded in how people live, what they believe, and the environments they navigate every day. This is where behavioral and social science research (BSSR) provides answers. BSSR can examine individual characteristics and the broader contexts that shape health, or our “social determinants of health,” which either promote good health or exacerbate health disparities. Despite its enormous potential to improve lives, BSSR receives only a fraction of the funding and recognition given to biomedical research. In some cases, the use of terminology or phrases related to research on health disparities in a grant proposal have resulted in unfair termination of funding. If we want to understand not only today’s most pressing public health crises, but also the political moment science now finds itself in, we need scientists who ask the why’s and the how’s.

That belief is core to the work we do at Science for Good. As a co-founder of Science for Good, I aim to bridge the gap between public health and traditional science, ensuring that research extends beyond academia to benefit the communities it serves directly. I am committed to breaking down barriers and rebuilding trust by making scientific findings more understandable and actionable for those who need them most. I strive to reinforce that social and behavioral researchers are scientists too, and that our work serves a critical role in understanding, preventing, and addressing complex public health challenges.

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Because If We Don’t Advocate for the Future of our Field, Who Will?: Reflections from COSSA’s 2025 Social Science Advocacy Day

On March 24-25, 2025, over 70 social and behavioral science researchers, students, and advocates from 17 different states participated in Social Science Advocacy Day. This annual event brings together advocates from across the country to discuss with Members of Congress and their staff the importance of prioritizing funding for federal agencies and programs that support social and behavioral science research. Below are reflections from three advocates who participated: Sarah Wang, an undergraduate student at American University; Marcel LaFlamme, Director of Research Policy and Scholarship at the Association of Research Libraries; and Angelo Cusimano, Psychology PhD student at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and an adjunct professor at Baruch College, CUNY.

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Because We Need to Show Up to Have Our Voices Heard: Reflections from COSSA’s 2024 Social Science Advocacy Day

On April 8-9, 2024, over 60 social and behavioral science researchers, students, and advocates from 18 different states participated in Social Science Advocacy Day. This annual event, the 10th annual organized by in the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), brings together advocates from across the country to discuss with Members of Congress and their staff the importance of prioritizing funding for federal agencies and programs that support social and behavioral science research. Below are reflections from three advocates who participated: Emma Southern, an undergraduate student at American University; Dr. Laura Widman, Associate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University, and the founder of Teen Health Research, Inc.; and Dr. Aaryn L. Green, Interim Director of Research, Professional Development, and Academic Affairs at the American Sociological Association.

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Because It Makes an Outsized Impact on Policy

We know that social and behavioral science (SBS) has a hold on the conversation when institutional and government decision-makers parley over what goes into ‘policy.’ But oftentimes the SBS researchers whose own work goes into policy are unaware that they’re making an impact in the real world and are stymied from amplifying their findings or using them to advance their careers or fields.

With this in mind, Sage partnered with Overton to create Sage Policy Profiles, a free-to-use tool that enables researchers to discover the real-world impact – drawing from a pool of more than 10 million policy documents – of their work on policy, visualize, export, and share what they find.

In light of this launch, I sat down with Euan Adie, founder of Altmetric and Overton and currently Overton’s managing director, to learn more about the outsized impact that SBS makes on policy and his work creating tools to connect the scholarly and policy worlds.

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Because Social Scientists Must Have a Seat at the Table: Reflections from COSSA’s 2023 Social Science Advocacy Day

On April 24-25, 2023, over 50 social and behavioral science researchers, students, and advocates from 11 different states participated in Social Science Advocacy Day. This annual event, organized by in the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), brings together advocates from across the country to discuss with Members of Congress and their staff the importance of funding federal agencies and programs that support social and behavioral science research. This year was COSSA’s first in-person Social Science Advocacy Day since 2019. Below are reflections from three advocates who participated: Brenna Tosh, an undergraduate student at Cornell University; Dr. Nicole R. Stokes, Dean for Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University at Abington; and Dr. Deborah Carr, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University.

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Because People Should be at the Center of Policymaking: Reflections from COSSA’s 2022 Social Science Advocacy Day

On March 29, 2022, nearly 70 social and behavioral science researchers, students, university administrators, and other stakeholders participated in Social Science Advocacy Day. This annual event, organized by in the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), brings together advocates from across the country to engage with Members of Congress and their staff to explain why social science needs to be supported and how these sciences are putting people back at the center of policymaking. This year, advocates from 22 states met virtually with 88 Congressional offices in the House of Representatives and Senate. Below are reflections from three of them: a department chair, a doctoral student, and an undergraduate student.

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Because Hurricanes Aren’t Going Away Any Time Soon and Schools Must Continue to Function

Natural disasters (such as hurricanes) have a history of impacting some of the most socially vulnerable communities – low income communities and communities of color. While the intensity and quantity of storms will likely increase in the coming years, we still have very little information on the best services and sources that can support schooling, educators, and students during and after natural disasters. My research is working to address this gap by collecting, analyzing, and presenting data on the best ways to assist recovery for some of the most vulnerable populations.      

What have we learned in the last decade?

Across the last decade, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed 67 Major Disaster Declarations in the United States from hurricanes alone. Each of these declarations impacted communities, schools, educators, and students throughout our nation.  We’ve also learned that 6 of the 10 (60%) costliest hurricanes in our history occurred between 2010 and 2019, costing a total of $393.7 billion.

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Because It Makes Informed Democracy Possible

Einstein said famously, “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.” It gives scientific optimists like me encouragement that great thinkers have concluded it is possible to understand the world, that the world is not chaotic, senseless, and inscrutable. In the empirical world there is a means for determining which of two ideas, explanations, or choices is more likely to be true. Through observation, experiment, and analysis there is a path to reliable knowledge. By going down that path we can gain knowledge that is more and more reliable. If only more people realized this! This is not only, as in Einstein’s words, mysterious that it should be so; it is also astounding. And this is comforting, because it also appears to be true that with reliable knowledge one can improve the human condition, reduce suffering and affliction, and ennoble human life. This is the testament of science. Science, the greatest intellectual development of the past half millennium, brings many material advances, but the greatest gift of science is the idea of science itself.

I suppose some would say I am going off the deep end in idle philosophy, but it seems to me very empowering in a practical sense to know how useful the well-developed practices and standards of science (social science and the scientific techniques of other disciplines) are for resolving many differences of opinion. How very empowering it is to know that there can be and is progress toward a self-consistent and improving understanding of people and things.

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Because It Guides Us Toward Practical and Attainable Solutions

The wisest quote about science that I’ve read in recent years was penned by Vanderbilt University’s Larry Bartels, in an article he wrote during the runup to 2016 general election. He reminded us simply that “[p]olitical science, like any science, is a process of discovery and collective scrutiny, not a fixed body of established facts.” The “collective scrutiny” of science is essential to establishing the veracity of its discoveries and the power of its consensus claims. But I’ve also come to believe that collective scrutiny in the social sciences quietly pushes us toward an important habit of mind: patience and moderation in our approach to fixing social problems. Social science has played a key role in helping U.S. service members complete their duties more effectively and more ethically. We highlight four such contributions.

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Because Social Science Equips Us with Tools We Will Need to Face Down the Biggest Issues of Our Time, Including the Growing Global Threat of Climate Change

Our Earth is in crisis. More frequent and severe droughts, rising sea-levels, extreme weather and ecological damage are already here, with more loss and hardship on the horizon.

As a trained engineer and Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, I depend on science to inform my policy decisions. Social sciences are especially important to my work because they help reveal how climate change is impacting people and communities. This is invaluable insight for policymakers working to make decisions meant to save lives and build more resilient communities.

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Because It Can Improve Government Efficiency via Evidence-Based Policy

Before explaining how social science is or could be used in policy, it is first important to think why it should be used. Why do we do social science? For most of us, our research goes beyond intellectual curiosity. We want to make an impact on the world around us—to observe and systematically report on conditions that affect society as a means for change and improvement.

Although researchers’ work tends to have meaningful implications for policy, there is no direct, linear pathway from knowledge production to its use for public benefit. This can be frustrating at times for social scientists who wonder: why aren’t policymakers using more research to inform their decisions? Although research is not always driving decision-making, key examples from the bipartisan evidence-based policy movement offer hope, such as the Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting  program, which is backed by evidence and has received bipartisan support. However, policies like this contrast with others that appear to disregard science. So the real question is not why is research disregarded, but under what circumstances is research used—and can we improve the rate it is used? 

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Because Social Science Can Have an Impact on Public Policy

Why Social Science? Because social science can—and should—have a real impact on public policy at the federal, state, and local levels. More than a decade ago, while serving as President of the Southern Criminal Justice Association, I spoke with Mittie Southerland, who at the time was the Executive Director of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). We lamented that while our members produced the best and most topical peer-reviewed and policy-relevant research in crime and justice, getting legislators, reporters, and policy-makers to take account of it seemed an almost impossible task. How to make it happen?

Today, I chair the Crime & Justice Research Alliance (CJRA), a centralized resource of authoritative experts and scholarly studies created to provide policymakers, practitioners and the public direct access to relevant research on crime and criminal justice issues. Formed in 2015, CJRA is a collaborative partnership between the nation’s two leading criminal justice associations, ACJS and the American Society of Criminology (ASC), which represent more than 5,000 criminal justice scholars, practitioners, and researchers.

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Because It Can Challenge Conventional Wisdom

Social science research provides evidence that helps us understand the drivers of social problems. A lot of times, this evidence is in contrast to the conventional wisdom and may on the face of it seem counterintuitive.  However, evidence from social science research can show why certain policies work and why other policies fail, helping us inform policy and prevent unintended consequences.

An example of this is “ban-the-box” policies, laws that forbid employers from asking whether a job applicant was ever involved with the justice system. The purpose of such policies was to improve hiring rates for individuals with criminal backgrounds and limit discrimination by employers, based on the  theory that the stigma for those involved with the criminal justice system would not be present if employers did not have information about applicants’ criminal histories. The large racial disparities in the criminal justice system lead to further racial disparities in the employment of ex-offenders. Thus, banning the box would have the added benefit of reducing racial disparities in employment. Thirty-one states plus the District of Columbia have passed ban-the-box policies, along with over 150 cities and counties.

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Because It Can Improve the Lives of City Residents

There’s a movement underway to integrate scientific research into the everyday workings of government at all levels. Increasingly, research professionals are being called upon to roll up their sleeves and lend their advice, expertise, and knowledge in service to government. Here in the District of Columbia, Mayor Muriel Bowser established The Lab @ DC, a team to work with a wide range of city agencies. The Lab uses scientific insights and methods to test and improve policies and provide timely, relevant, and high quality-analysis to inform DC’s most important decisions.

In building the team—which now includes over 20 employees, fellows, and regular collaborators—Mayor Bowser made the explicit decision to make social and behavioral science expertise central. We have scientists with PhDs in anthropology, sociology, economics, and psychological science who work in Washington, DC’s city hall addressing some of our biggest challenges. These social scientists work closely with other experts on the team, such as data scientists and operations experts, to ensure that solutions are theoretically sound, methodologically rigorous, and carried out efficiently and effectively. Importantly, team members are “embedded” in city government, which allows them to build relationships with other city employees as well as the citizens they serve.

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Because It is an Engine for Social Progress

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is dedicated to preparing the next generation of social work practitioners, policy makers, and researchers with the competencies to address society’s needs. The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) is a catalyst for excellence in developing, implementing, and translating research that advances social work practice and social policy that improves human well-being. Together we advance society through the delivery of quality services informed by social science research. As March is Social Work Month, with this year’s theme being “Social Workers: Leaders. Advocates. Champions,” CSWE and SSWR appreciate the opportunity to share with the community what makes social work research an important part of social science as a discipline. 

While the public is generally aware of social work as a profession of practitioners, it is less aware of its science. And yet, social work researchers have been integral to the science that has led to improvements in people’s lives and the amelioration of social ills for generations. Social work science played an important role in progressive social movements such as the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, child labor laws, and women, political, civil and human rights. Social work science led to many of the “Great Society” programs to address poverty and racial injustice and the development of humane care for service men and women. Social work science has facilitated culturally and contextually relevant services for people across the lifespan (from cradle to grave) and influenced consumer protection policies and programs.

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Because It Adds Value, Even When You Don’t See It

Why Social Science? was launched in 2017 as a project of the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) aimed at getting social science findings and impacts out to the general public. Our goal has been to talk about our sciences in new and interesting ways, making them feel more accessible and relevant to our everyday lives. The 22 interesting and diverse pieces published in 2017, I think, did just that. I am excited for the stories that will be told through Why Social Science? in 2018.

To kick the year off, I would like to speak directly to social science researchers and shine a light on an important, though often overlooked contribution made by the social and behavioral sciences—serving as resources to government officials. Policy makers are an important segment of the public audience we hope to reach through Why Social Science?, but working with them directly is just as—if not more—important. 

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