Elizabeth Tipton
Professor of Statistics and Data Science
Northwestern University
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
I develop methods for designing studies and for building evidence that decision-makers can use.
Recently
- Apr 2026 What schools want vs. what evidence can deliver — PIER seminar, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
- 2025 Elected to the National Academy of Education.
- 2025 Designing Small Evaluation Studies, with Larry Hedges — Sage.
Students
Students I've been lucky to work with
In the group now
- 2026Matt ForteDissertation: On Heterogeneity in Small Meta-Analyses
- 2026Daihe SuiDissertation: Advanced Methods for Modern Research Synthesis
- 2027Michael ArmahUse of ML in meta-analysis, focused on predicting effects
- 2029Jyontika KapoorDirection still forming
- 2030Anushka DeDirection still forming
If you're considering applying
At Northwestern, PhD admissions decisions are made by a departmental committee, not by individual faculty. Once you're admitted to the department, you look for a mentor.
I take students interested in working on design, estimation, and prediction problems: e.g., optimal allocation when the estimand is a distribution rather than a mean, moderator structure across a literature, the design of evidence portfolios. If you want to work on experimentation under heterogeneity and you're willing to become fluent in both the causal inference and the optimal-design literatures, write to me.
Doctoral students — sponsor
Northwestern
- 2025Kayla SchroederDissertation: Reliability and Causality of Natural Language Processing Methods · Software Engineer III, YouTube Ads, Google
- 2024Judy ZhangDissertation: Summarizing and Characterizing Heterogeneous Treatment Effects · Postdoctoral Fellow, Mount Sinai
- 2023Zhipeng HouDissertation: Reliably Accelerated Literature Screening in Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis and Other Evidence Synthesis Methods · Biostatistician, EVERSANA
- 2021Katie FitzgeraldDissertation: Methods for Synthesizing and Translating Statistical Evidence in Education · Assistant Professor, Azusa Pacific University
Committee member
- 2026Linnea GandhiOperations Research, University of Pennsylvania · Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale School of Management
- 2024Sarah MoorePolitical Science, Northwestern · Data Strategist, City Colleges of Chicago
- 2023Michalis MamakosComputer Science, Northwestern · Postdoctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
- 2021Sarah Peko-SpicerStatistics, Northwestern · Senior Researcher, AIR
- 2021Rrita ZejnullahiStatistics, Northwestern · Clinical Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, UIC
Undergraduate thesis
- 2026Maya MubayiHonors thesis, Statistics and Data Science · PhD student, Biostatistics, Brown University
Teachers College, Columbia University — 2011–2018
My first faculty position. These students were in Measurement and Evaluation, Health Education, and Economics in Education — fields adjacent to where my work has since gone.
Sponsor
- 2021Karina Yanez-DiazMeasurement and Evaluation · World Bank
- 2019Hedyeh AhmadiMeasurement and Evaluation · University of California, Irvine
- 2016Lauren FellersMeasurement and Evaluation · Executive Director of Assessment and Accountability, Responsive Education Solutions
- 2016Sukhminder KaurEdD, Health Education
- 2014Katharine ConnPhD, Economics in Education · Consortium for Policy Research in Education
Committee member
Tom Weishaar, Magdalena Bennett (2019) · Zhongqi Shi, Peggy Loo, Matthew Graziose, Ian Ang, Yoko Kodaira, Aasha Foster, Ama Awotwi (2017) · Jing Li, Gemma Moya Gale, Maria Ofelia Clarissa Z. San Pedro, Carissa Chambers, Sarah Zoogman, Kathleen Thomson (2016) · Nicole Zillmer, Min Cheng, Pyong Kim, Jenny Kao, Marissa Burgermaster (2015) · Kathleen Farrell, Lisa Pao, Sunbong Kim, Valerie Khait, Laura Cordisco Tsai (2014) · Jessica Marini, Selen Turkay, Emma Garcia (2013) · Ryan Williams (2012, Loyola University Chicago)