Naomi Ostrander

Naomi Ostrander is a Research Project Coordinator at the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science (CORNERS) at Northwestern University. In this role, she works closely with community violence intervention organizations on Chicago's West Side. Her work focuses on the qualitative aspects of a process and impact evaluation of the North Lawndale Collaborative. The Collaborative is a groundbreaking effort to coordinate outreach, referral, and services across multiple organizations to dramatically reduce gun violence. She supports an innovative mixed methods research team, integrating diverse methods, data, and forms of analysis to understand the Collaborative's impact at the individual and community level. Having grown up in Chicago, she is deeply committed to creating a safer, more equitable community and sees this work as a way to give back to the place that shaped her.

CORNERS, or the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science at Northwestern University, leverages the transformative power of networks to help community and civic partners build safer, healthier neighborhoods. CORNERS does this through its unique approach to research that combines Engaged Research and Neighborhood Science. Engaged Research: CORNERS collaborates with its partners throughout the research process – from design and data collection to analysis and dissemination – to maximize impact. Neighborhood Science: CORNERS studies, analyzes, and illuminates the complex network of people, institutions, and organizations that make up the “connective tissue” of communities and – by extension –cities. This formula guides CORNERS' team of caring, committed professionals to conduct scientifically rigorous research and provide timely solutions to the questions its partners are asking.