Marissa Thompson
Alumni

Marissa Thompson

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
[email protected]

Marissa Thompson is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of racial and socioeconomic inequality, with an emphasis on understanding the role of education in producing disparate outcomes over the life-course. Marissa’s current research explores the Black gender gap in educational attainment, parental choice of segregated schools, and the causal effects of a first-dollar scholarship policy on college access in Michigan. She employs both descriptive and quasi-experimental quantitative methods using large national datasets and novel survey experiments. 

Marissa was an IES postdoc with the Education Policy Initiative at the University of Michigan from 2021-2022. She earned a Ph.D. in Education Policy and Sociology of Education from Stanford University, an M.A. in Sociology from Stanford, and a B.S.E in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Educational background

  • Stanford University, Ph.D., Sociology of Education & Education Policy (2021) 
  • Stanford University, M.A., Sociology (2019)
  • University of Pennsylvania, B.S.E., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (2016)