Matthew W. Stagner is Executive Director of Chapin Hall and a Senior Lecturer at the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Chapin Hall, Dr. Stagner directed the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. He also served as Director of the Division of Children and Youth Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Stagner is an expert on youth risk behaviors, child welfare services, and program evaluation. He is Co-Principal Investigator of CWICstats, an initiative that collects, analyzes, and disseminates information on the performance of Chicago-area workforce-development programs, and is Co-Principal Investigator of Elev8 in Chicago, which focuses on disadvantaged middle school students. He is also conducting research on the effectiveness of programs for children aging out of foster care.

Dr. Stagner holds a Ph.D. from the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago and a master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.