STAR Principal Investigators

Elizabeth Frankenberg

Elizabeth Frankenberg is the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor in Sociology and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, (PhD, Demography and Sociology, University of Pennsylvania). She directs the Carolina Center for Population Aging and Health and has served as director of the Carolina Population Center. Her research focuses on three thematic areas: the ways in which the health and social service environment shape the well-being of individuals, the ways that interactions among family members influence well-being, and how individuals respond to changes induced by unexpected events.

In collaboration with Thomas and others, Frankenberg has exploited shocks - economic crises and natural disasters - to observe their influence on human capital and resource investments at the individual, household, and community level. Most recently, Frankenberg has examined the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami on psycho-social well-being, post-traumatic stress as a function of exposure to community trauma, and the impact of the orphanhood after the tsunami on children's short- and longer-run well-being. Frankenberg's research is oriented toward better understanding responses by individuals and policy makers in the aftermath of shocks.

Cecep Sumantri

Sumantri is the Director of SurveyMeter, Indonesia (PhD, Public Health, University of Gadjah Mada) He was the field coordinator for IRMS2, IFLS2 and IFLS2+, the assistant field director for IFLS3 and the field director for the Work and Iron Status Evaluation in Purworejo, Central Java. He has payed a pivotal role in all aspects of STAR including the development and fielding of innovative modules to measure economic status, biological health risks and cognitive function.

Sumantri has also led survey teams conducting research on behalf of the World Bank, including projects such as Effective Targeting of Anti-Poverty Program II Pilot Project; Effective Targeting of Anti-Poverty Program II Baseline Survey; End-line Study on the Effectiveness of BOS-KITA National and District Campaign, and Independent Monitoring and Evaluation on Activities for BOS Program Implementation. Sumantri has played a key role in maintaining and improving the high quality of data during the collection and cleaning.

Duncan Thomas

Duncan Thomas is the Norb F. Schaefer Director Professor of International Studies in the Economics Department at Duke University (PhD, Economics, Princeton University). He is a member of the faculty of the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Duke Global Health Institute. Thomas investigates the inter-relationships between health, human capital and socio-economic status with a focus on isolating causal pathways underlying these associations. His research highlights the roles that individual, family and community factors play in influencing the health and well-being of populations across the globe. Much of this research seeks to understand mechanisms that underlie the complex bi-directional relationships between health and well-being over the life course.

The impact of large-scale, unanticipated shocks on human behavior has played a central role in a series of studies that examine the impact of financial crises on health, health behaviors, human capital investments and resource allocation choices of individuals and their families. On-going research examines the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami on mortality, psycho-social well-being, physical health as well as social and economic security in the immediate and longer-term. This research highlights behavioral responses to changes that arise because of the tsunami including marriage and fertility, migration, success in the labor market, savings and investments as well as investments in children.

Other Key Personnel at SurveyMETER

Iip Umar Rifai is the director of computing at SurveyMETER and was trained at Bogor Agricultural University. Rifai has worked on survey projects with Frankenberg, Thomas, Sumantri, Sikoki, and Suriastini since 1997, when he joined the Indonesia Family Life Survey. He has designed and developed the Computer Assisted Field Editing product and the Computer Assisted Personal Interview product used in STAR. He has managed all aspects of data monitoring and developed state-of-the-art tools to assist tracking respondents including the maintenance of real-time data on all potential locations of movers. He develops programs and applications in many languages, including CSPro, Stata, PHP, Harbour/xHarbour, and Python.

Bondan Sikoki is the founding director of SurveyMETER. She was trained in demography, sociology, and survey research at the University of Indonesia and the University of Michigan. In collaboration with Frankenberg and Thomas, she led two waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey and has continued to lead all later waves of IFLS. She led the Worker Iron Supplementation Evaluation study. Sikoki has been integrally involved in all aspects of STAR survey design, training, monitoring, and data processing. Her research interests include marriage and fertility, gender, aging, and health. Recent work examines the determinants of tsunami mortality in Aceh, the evolution of health status among Indonesian adults, and methods for evaluating (and reducing) attrition in panel surveys.

Collaborators and Co-Authors

Emily Bernhardt (Biology, Duke University)
Kelly Brownell (Public Policy and Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University)
Michael Burrows (Census Bureau)
Ava Cas (Business and Economics, Catholic University of America)
Steve Cole (Medicine and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA)
Eileen Crimmins (Gerontology, University of Southern California)
Jed Friedman (Research Department, World Bank)
Thomas Gillespie (Geography, UCLA)
Clark Gray (Geography, UNC Chapel Hill)
Jessica Ho (Sociology and Demography, Penn State University)
Nicholas Ingwersen (Carolina Population Center, UNC Chapel Hill)
Rene Iwo (Sociology, UNC Chapel Hill)
Arun Karlamangla (Medicine, UCLA)
Peter Katz (Economics, Duke University)
Maria Laurito (Analysis Group)
Ralph Lawton (Medicine and Public Policy, Harvard)
Richard Lombardo (Economics, Harvard)
Christopher McKelvey (Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Jenna Nobles (Demography, University of California, Berkeley)
Samuel H. Preston (Sociology, University of Pennsylvania)
Robert Pynoos (Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA)
Fadia Saadah (World Bank)
Teresa Seeman (Medicine and Epidemiology, UCLA)
Margaret Sheridan (Psychology, UNC Chapel Hill)
Alan Steinberg (Neuropsychiatric Institute, UCLA)
Mary Story (Community and Family Medicine and Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University)
Tony Sun (Board of Governors, Federal Reserve)
Wayan Suriastini (SurveyMETER, Indonesia)
Gina Turrini (CDC)