Michele Claibourn

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 Equitable Analysis in The Equity Center 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 a 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.