Amy O'Hara

Amy O’Hara is a Research Professor in the Massive Data Institute and Executive Director of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center at the McCourt School for Public Policy. She also leads the Administrative Data Research Initiative, improving secure, responsible data access for research and evaluation. O’Hara addresses risks involved with data sharing by connecting practices across the social, health, computer, and data sciences.

Her research focuses on population measurement, data quality, and record linkage. O’Hara has published on topics including the measurement of income, longitudinal linkages to measure economic mobility, and the data infrastructure necessary to support government and academic research.

Prior to joining Georgetown, O’Hara was a senior executive at the U.S. Census Bureau where she founded their administrative data curation and research unit. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame.

Expertise

• Data Governance
• Data Linkage
• Privacy

Featured Works

• The Opportunities and Challenges of Using Administrative Data Linkages to Evaluate Mobility
• Postsecondary Data Infrastructure: What is Possible Today
• Big Data and the Transformation of Public Policy Analysis
• Linking Survey and Administrative Data to Measure Income, Inequality, and Mobility

Academic Appointment(s)

Research Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy

Education

• University of Notre Dame - Ph.D., Economics
• University of Notre Dame - M.A., Economics
• SUNY College at Buffalo - B.S., Economics