Maxwell X Lab Leadership and Staff

Leonard Lopoo serves as director and co-founder of the Maxwell X Lab. Len is also Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics in the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs and the director of the Center for Policy Research at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

Len received a Ph.D. from the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago in 2001, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University from 2001-2003.

His research centers on policies, programs and behavioral interventions designed to assist low-income families, and he teaches courses in statistics, program evaluation and predictive analytics.

Len has received funding from a number of federal agencies and foundations, including the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Aging, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and the Allyn Family Foundation.

He is the recipient of numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the Birkhead-Burkhead Teaching Excellence Award (twice), an Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, a Meredith Professors Recognition Award and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize.

Hannah Patnaik serves as the managing director of the Maxwell X Lab. She received her Ph.D. from the Maxwell School in 2021.

Her research is interdisciplinary and centers on evaluating policies and programs that support the well-being of vulnerable populations. Her most recent work is on the impact of community-based climate change adaptation and the evaluation of gender dynamics within community-driven development.

Her additional work has focused on material hardship and food insecurity amongst immigrant, disabled and elderly populations. Previously, Hannah worked at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization establishing key new partnerships with the private sector.

Jack Baldwin is a senior associate in the Maxwell X Lab. He is involved in the development, implementation and analysis of projects across the lab’s portfolio. He is also lead mentor and supervisor for the lab’s team of student research assistants.

Katrina Fiacchi serves as administrative specialist in the Maxwell X Lab. She has worked in the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University since 2013 and joined the X Lab team soon after it was founded in 2017.

Katrina's main job duties in the X Lab include financial management of each project, expense reimbursement processing, and other day to day administrative tasks. She is also part of the Maxwell X Lab research assistant search committee.

Katrina earned her B.S. in business administration from The College at Brockport, SUNY in 2011.