Meet the 2025–2026 Stanford Impact Labs Investment Advisory Council

Each year, Stanford Impact Labs (SIL) launches an investment process designed to catalyze teams of Stanford scholars and practitioners working to generate new insights, rigorous evidence, and practical solutions to some of society’s most urgent challenges. 

Since our founding in 2019, SIL has sought to bring social science out of the academy and into the world by funding and supporting research with the power to drive large-scale impact.

This year’s investment process benefits from the guidance and oversight of the 2025-2026 Investment Advisory Council (IAC). The council brings together leaders from government and the social sector with Stanford faculty and staff to reflect a broad range of perspectives and experience in translating social science into real-world impact.

We are pleased to welcome Amira Choueiki Boland, David Grusky, Grant Miller, Rebecca Wolfe, and David Yokum to this year’s council, to serve alongside SIL Faculty Director Matthew Gentzkow as well as Michael Eddy, Hana Passen, and Misan Rewane.

“Stanford has a deep bench of world-leading social science,” notes Gentzkow, the Landau Professor of Technology and the Economy in the School of Humanities and Sciences. “Stanford Impact Labs exists to put that science to work addressing pressing societal challenges. As we work to distribute our resources most effectively and expand our portfolio, insights from our IAC play an essential role.”

Investment Advisory Council members are appointed for a one-year term and convene quarterly to advise on SIL’s investment stages while offering strategic guidance to strengthen and shape the overall investment approach.

According to Rewane, SIL's Executive Director, applications for funding have increased by more than a third since 2024—clear evidence of growing demand. “While we are inspired by the volume and quality of proposals we receive, we simply cannot fund them all,” she notes. “With stewardship from the IAC, our charge is to advance impact-focused research that meaningfully engages partners beyond the university and is positioned to make a significant scientific contribution.”