Olivia Neff, PhD, MS

Dr. Olivia Neff joined the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center (GRC) in October 2025 as a Senior Researcher. She is a mixed-methods researcher whose independent work focuses on how workplace policies shape access to healthcare and contribute to or mitigate health inequality. Dr. Neff earned her M.S. in Sociology from Purdue University in 2022 and her Ph.D. from Purdue in 2026; her dissertation examined how differences in paid sick leave policy design and implementation across states influence workers' awareness and use of paid leave for preventive care. Her research spans 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 Studies in American Political Development. Dr. Neff brings experience in survey design, qualitative interviewing and content coding, and quantitative data analysis, along with a strong policy-focused lens to her work at GRC. At GRC, Dr. Neff contributes to the QI Hub initiative, the Ohio Medicaid Assessment Survey (OMAS), and the SUD 1115 demonstration waiver evaluation.