Faculty Profile

BIO

Dr. Mara Cecilia Ostfeld is an associate research professor in the Ford School of Public Policy, a research associate professor at the Center for Political Studies, and the research director at the Center for Racial Justice at the University of Michigan. In addition, Mara is a faculty lead at the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study—an ongoing representative survey of Detroit households that asks residents about their expectations, perceptions, priorities, and aspirations. She is an expert in survey research and the analysis of public opinion, with a particular focus on the relationship between race, media, and political attitudes. Her work has been published in journals that include Social Forces, Political Behavior, Political Psychology and Political Communication, and has been supported by funders such as the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. Mara is the primary investigator of the Puerto Rico Public Opinion Lab (with colleagues Mayra Vélez Serrano and Luis Cámara Fuertes at the University of Puerto Rico) in which the research team is implementing the first representative study of political attitudes in Puerto Rico. During national elections, Mara also works as an analyst at NBC and Telemundo.