Adam Gamoran, President of the William T. Grant Foundation, Spoke at GW University About How Universities Can Conduct Better Research

Adam Gamoran, President of the William T. Grant Foundation, Spoke at GW University About How Universities Can Conduct Better Research

Adam Gamoran – the president of the William T. Grant Foundation, a nonprofit foundation that funds social science research – spoke at the Marvin Center Amphitheater Thursday about how universities can conduct better research.

The event, titled “Can Universities Serve the Public Good?”, was hosted by the Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Following welcoming remarks from Provost Forrest Maltzman, Gamoran spoke about the importance of reshaping incentives within universities to support faculty research that responds to real-life challenges.

“My stance is that we can take action with more immediate consequence if we reorient the research taking place in our universities to social impact,” he said.

Gamoran said that the Grant Foundation aims to promote values of diversity, equity and inclusion by encouraging universities to incentivize social scientists to conduct research and develop partnerships with decision-makers at the local and federal levels.

Gamoran said the government should move away from using research findings to promote a political agenda and should instead evaluate research findings in the context of other factors that can affect policy decisions...