Colin Cepuran

Senior Researcher

Dr. Colin Cepuran is a Senior Researcher at Chapin Hall. He works on the Implementation Collaborative. Cepuran uses quantitative, survey, and geographic research to provide technical support to child welfare agencies. That assistance includes evaluation projects leveraging administrative data, original surveys of state child welfare leaders, and secondary data analyses of community characteristics. His projects help keep children safely at home with their families using economic supports.

Prior to starting at Chapin Hall, Cepuran worked in the Harris County, TX Justice Administration Department, which oversaw the development and implementation of criminal justice reform policies in and around the city of Houston. He has also taught courses on American politics at Cornell University, for men incarcerated in New York State, and at Cayuga Community College. Prior to attending graduate school, Cepuran worked in politics in Southwest Michigan.

Cepuran obtained a PhD in Government from Cornell University in 2021, concentrating in American Politics and writing a dissertation on the politics of immigration policy. He also obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and German from Kalamazoo College in 2015.

PhD in Government, Cornell University

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and German, Kalamazoo College

Thomas, K., Cepuran, C. J. G., & Harison, A. (2024). The health and well-being of families with young children. Invited presentation at Administration of Children and Families Region V State Learning Collaborative for Policy Innovation.

Heaton, L., Cepuran, C. J. G., Harison, A, & Gandarilla Ocampo, M. (2024). Grounding community pathways in prevention science and data: What more we need to learn. Invited presentation at the Doris Duke Foundation and Chapin Hall’s National Community Pathways Convening.

Heaton, L., Cepuran, C. J. G., & Harison, A. (2024). Screen-outs and re-referrals in Wisconsin, 2017-2022. Invited presentation to the Doris Duke Foundation.

Heaton, L., Cepuran, C. J. G., & Harison, A. (2023). Screen-outs and re-referrals in Wisconsin, 2017-2022. Invited presentation to the Wisconsin State Department of Children and Families.

Cepuran, C. J. G., & Heaton, L. (2022). The pandemic as a prism: COVID and racial inequality. Invited presentation to Arizona Dependency Court Judges Conference.

Cepuran, C. J. G., Heaton, L., & Weiner, D. (2022). COVID impacts on vulnerable children. Invited presentation to CDC Department of Violence Prevention staff.

Heaton, L., Weiner, D., & Cepuran, C.J.G. (2022). The pandemic as a prism: COVID and racial inequality. Invited presentation at Casey Family Programs Board retreat.

Keefe, R., Richmond, K., Laris, Z., Cepuran, C., Chor, B., Griggs, K., Heaton, L., & Rothkuo, J. (2022, October). Fostering families: A 50-state qualitative research review of Family First Congregate Care Reform Implementation. Research accepted at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition.

Cepuran, C. (2020, September). American dreams: How DACA shaped the political identities of the Dreamers. Paper accepted at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.

Cepuran, C. (2020, May). American dreams: How DACA shaped the political identities of the Dreamers. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association.

Cepuran, C., Berry, J., & Garcia-Rios, S. (2019, April). Testing theories of the identity to politics link in Whites with an experiment. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.

Cepuran C., & Berry, J. (2018, April). Comparing the roles of discrimination in political behavior.

Keefe, R., Cepuran, C. J. G., Richmond, K., Rhodes, J., Laris, Z., Anderson, C., Heaton, L., & Chor, B. (2024). Family First implementation: A one-year review of state progress in reforming congregate care. Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023-063680

Cepuran, C. J. G., & Berry, J. (2022). Racial resentment and relative discrimination interactively predict White participation. Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-022-09786-2.

Berry, J.,  Cepuran, C. J. G., & Garcia-Rios, S. (2020). Comparing relative discrimination’s influence on vote choice. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2020.1842770