Katherine Hempstead, PhD, MA, joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2011 as a senior program officer in the Research and Evaluation unit. She brings her exceptional experience in government, research, and academia to her work with the RWJF Coverage team, and relishes the “opportunity to start new projects and learn more about the world of philanthropy.”

Previously, Hempstead was director of the Center for Health Statistics in the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. She also served as statistician/analyst in the Office of the Attorney General, New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, an assistant research professor, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, and an adjunct assistant professor, School of Public Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Hempstead’s early career included work as a research scientist and assistant professor at the Center for Health and Public Service Research, Wagner School of Public Service, New York University. She was an instructor at the New School for Social Research, New York, a post-doctoral training fellow at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University, and an assistant professor at Catholic University, Washington, D.C. She has published extensively in the areas of mortality by ethnicity and migration.

Born in New Jersey, Hempstead received a PhD in Demography and History from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also earned an MA in Demography and a BA in Economics and History.

Hempstead presently resides in West Windsor with her husband. They have three children.