Olivia Neff joined the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center (GRC) in October 2025. She is a mixed-methods researcher whose independent research focuses on how workplace policies shape access to healthcare and contribute to or mitigate health inequality. Olivia earned her M.S. in Sociology from Purdue University in 2022 and is currently a Ph.D. candidate, with her doctorate anticipated in Spring 2026. Her dissertation examines how differences in paid sick leave policy design and implementation across states influence workers’ awareness and use of paid leave for preventative care. Her research includes projects on workplace policies, childhood adversity, diabetes, socioeconomic disparities, and food insecurity. She has published in Sociology of Health & Illness, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, and the Studies in American Political Development.
Olivia has experience in survey design, qualitative interviewing, and quantitative data analysis, and brings a strong policy-focused lens to her work at GRC. At GRC, Olivia is working on projects related to the Ohio Medicaid Assessment Survey (OMAS), the QI Hub initiative, and the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) and Comprehensive Maternal Care (CMC) monitoring projects.