The Drug Enforcement Policy Center (DEPC) at Mortiz College of Law is excited to welcome Dr. Meghan O’Neil as a Research Scholar. 

Dr. O’Neil joins the team from the University of Michigan, where she was a Research Investigator at the Institute for Social Research, and previously a Research Scholar at the University of Michigan Law School and Visiting PhD Student in the Department of Sociology. In her roles, she collaborated with courts, supervision agencies, and community-based public health organizations to collect evidence to support low-cost public policy solutions. 

O'Neil’s research interests include American inequality and structural disparities in the justice system, housing, and health, particularly by race and ethnicity. She has co-authored articles published in law reviews and in a wide array of social science and public health journals. Among her impressive professional activities, she now serves as director of mentorship for the American Sociological Association’s Community for First Generation and Working-Class Sociologists. 

“What I am looking forward to most about working at Moritz and the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center is to be part of a public law school that values interdisciplinary work and has potential to impact policy,” said O’Neil. “As a research scholar, I understand the role will leverage my training in sociology as well as experience collaborating with substance use treatment centers, corrections, and courts, to help inform the public policy debate and reduce systemic disparities. I also appreciate that Ohio State is a top first-gen serving institution that works to facilitate intergenerational mobility.”