The Maxwell School is pleased to announce three new O’Hanley Faculty Scholars: Margarita Estévez-Abe, Scott Landes and Emily Wiemers

Each was selected for outstanding teaching, scholarship and other accomplishments, including success with external grant support and service to the institution. The scholars hold the title for three years and receive supplemental financial support for teaching and research.

The O’Hanley Endowed Fund for Faculty Excellence was created with a major gift from Ron O’Hanley, chairman and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors and a 1980 graduate of the Maxwell School with a B.A. in political science. For O’Hanley, who is currently chair of the Maxwell Advisory Board and a trustee of the University, the fund serves to help recognize and support high-caliber academic and research talent.

Estévez-Abe, associate professor of political science, is also co-director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs’ Center for European Studies. She specializes in the comparative political economy of advanced industrial countries with an interest in how political and economic institutions are constructed differently across countries and their varying effects on politics and ordinary people’s lives. Her publications include an award-winning book, “Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan” (Cambridge University Press, 2008), two edited volumes, “Outsourcing Domestic Work (Care): The Politics, Policies and Political Economy” and “Beyond Familialism: Recalibrating Family, State and Market in Southern Europe and East Asia.” She has also published articles on topics such as gendering the varieties of capitalism, outsourcing of domestic tasks, and gender and social policy in Southern Europe and East Asia. She has served as visiting fellow/professor at Harvard University, the University of Tokyo, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the University of Konstanz and the University of Turin. She received a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1999. 

Landes, associate professor of sociology and director of undergraduate studies for the department, researches health and mortality trends for veterans and those with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD). His work includes the IDD Age at Death Data Tracker, which provides a stark picture of the younger age of death for people with IDD across the U.S., as well as by disability status, sex and race-ethnicity. He also serves as a senior research associate for the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health as well as a faculty associate for the Aging Studies Institute. His work has been supported by organizations such as the National Institutes of Health and has been published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, JAMA Open, Preventive Medicine and other journals. He has also been cited by numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Florida in 2014. 

Wiemers, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, is a faculty associate in the Aging Studies Institute and a research affiliate in the Center for Policy Research. Her work examines intergenerational ties and economic well-being across the life course. Recently, she has focused on how changes in health and disability affect economic well-being and the role families play in providing support in response to these changes in health. Her work has been published in the Journal of Human Resources, Population Development Review and other publications. She is a recipient of research grants from the National Institute on Aging, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2009. 

Estévez-Abe, Landes and Wiemers will serve as O’Hanley Faculty Scholars for three years. 

“We are grateful to Ron O’Hanley for his continued support of Maxwell faculty,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “His investment in Maxwell underscores his confidence in our work to support excellent scholars who are educating and inspiring our students to be engaged citizens. Professors Estévez-Abe, Landes and Wiemers are doing important work in their respective fields and are well-qualified and have earned this appointment.”