Michele Claibourn is a research director – social scientist, data scientist, community-engaged scholar, and administrator – and faculty member with 20+ years of experience teaching, leading, and managing research and data science teams.
She is the Director of Community-Centered Analysis at The Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Virginia working with scholars and practitioners, community experts, and students to create analysis and tools in support of a more just and equitable region. She is also an assistant professor at the Batten School of Leadership in Public Policy and a professor by courtesy at the School of Data Science.
She has engaged in a wide variety of work as a political science professor and quantitative scholar at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Virginia; as a data scientist engaged in applied work with the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service; as a consultant and leader creating UVA’s StatLab; as a library director building Research Data Services and the Social, Natural, and Engineering Sciences; and as a researcher bridging applied and academic interests with community partners and advocates.
Claibourn is an avid collaborator and current partners include:
- Community Policy, Analytics, and Strategy Lab (CommPAS), co-directing a community-oriented research initiative with Paul Martin in the Batten School of Public Policy,
- UVA Legal Data Lab, working to develop a platform to make anonymized court record data from the Virginia Judiciary more accessible for use by researchers and advocates,
- The Global Policy Center’s Humanitarian Collaborative at UVA, working with David Leblang on on predictive analytics for humanitarian goals,
- The RVA Eviction Lab at VCU, building data tools to support activists and advocates fighting harmful evictions.
Her work centers on action-based research, using the tools of data science to promote accountable governance, make visible racial and other social inequities, and impact public policy and movement building. She is a dedicated mentor and engages with students at UVA early in their careers.
