Nicole P. Marwell
Professor · Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Faculty Director · A.M. in Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management
Associate Editor · American Journal of Sociology
Faculty Director · A.M. in Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management
Associate Editor · American Journal of Sociology
Nicole P. Marwell is a Professor in the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, where she is also Faculty Director of the School's Master's Degree in Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management. She is a faculty affiliate of the UChicago Department of Sociology and affiliated faculty at the UChicago Data Science Institute.
Marwell has published articles in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Annals of the American Association of Political and Social Sciences, City and Community, Social Service Review, Human Service Organizations, Qualitative Sociology, and the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Her most recent book, Mismeasuring Impact: How Randomized Controlled Trials Threaten the Nonprofit Sector, was published in 2025 by Stanford University Press.
Marwell co-leads the University of Chicago Internet Equity Initiative, a research project examining disparities in internet access, affordability, and performance. This research uses novel measurement methods to document the digital divide in Chicago and other cities, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Data Science Institute. The Initiative is also conducting a qualitative study of the implementation of the Broadband Equity and Deployment (BEAD) program, a major federal policy designed to bring broadband service to unserved and underserved communities across the United States.
Marwell also co-leads the AI Innovation in Markets and Governance group at the University of Chicago, an interdisciplinary collaboration spanning the Crown Family School, Law School, Booth School of Business, Harris School of Public Policy, Social Sciences Division, and Computer Science Department. The group investigates how artificial intelligence challenges the rules and practices of governance, and what the consequences are for innovation and risk.
Prior to beginning her academic career, Professor Marwell worked in the field of nonprofits and philanthropy, including at New York City's Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, the AT&T Foundation, the Levi Strauss Foundation, and Nike. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago.
Scholarship
Publications
Books
Most Recent Book · 2025
Mismeasuring Impact: How Randomized Controlled Trials Threaten the Nonprofit Sector
Book · 2007
Bargaining for Brooklyn: Community Organizations in the Entrepreneurial City
Honorable Mention, Robert E. Park Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, ASA Community and Urban Sociology Section
Internet Equity
Henna Zamurd Butt, Nicole P. Marwell and Nick Feamster. Forthcoming (2026). "Internet Futuring: How Communities are Connecting Themselves." Digital Culture & Society 11, 1.
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Jonatas Marques, Jared N. Schachner, Nicole P. Marwell and Nick Feamster. Forthcoming (2026). "Characterizing Spatial Variation in Internet Access Latency: A Multilevel Approach." ACM Internet Measurement Conference.
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Taveesh Sharma, Paul Schmitt, Francesco Bronzino, Nicole P. Marwell and Nick Feamster. 2025. "Beyond Data Points: Regionalizing Crowdsourced Latency Measurements." ACM SIGMETRICS, pp. 1–14, Stony Brook, NY.
DOI Read more ↓
Jonatas Marques, Alexis Schrubbe, Nicole P. Marwell and Nick Feamster. 2024. "Are We Up to the Challenge? An Analysis of the FCC Broadband Data Collection Fixed Internet Availability Challenges." Proceedings of the 52nd Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC), Arlington, VA.
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Jonatas Marques, Alexis Schrubbe, Nicole P. Marwell and Nick Feamster. 2024. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Analyzing the FCC Broadband Data Collection." Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC), pp. 1–10, Washington, DC.
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Taveesh Sharma, Jonatas Marques, Nick Feamster and Nicole P. Marwell. 2023. "A First Look at the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Internet Performance Data in Hyperlocal Geographies." Research Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy (TPRC), pp. 1–6, Washington, DC.
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Kyle MacMillan, Tarun Mangla, James Saxon, Nicole P. Marwell and Nick Feamster. 2023. "A Comparative Analysis of Ookla Speedtest and Measurement Lab's Network Diagnostic Test (NDT7)." ACM SIGMETRICS, Orlando, FL.
DOI Read more ↓
Kyle MacMillan, Tarun Mangla, Nick Feamster and Nicole P. Marwell. 2022. "Internet Inequity in Chicago: Adoption, Affordability, and Availability." Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy (TPRC), pp. 1–10, Washington, DC.
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Kyle MacMillan, Tarun Mangla, Nick Feamster and Nicole P. Marwell. 2022. "Best Practices for Collecting Speed Test Data." Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy (TPRC), pp. 1–10, Washington, DC.
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Nick Feamster and Nicole P. Marwell. 2022. "Benchmarks or Equity? A New Approach to Measuring Internet Performance." Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy (TPRC), pp. 1–10, Washington, DC.
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Nonprofit Organizations & Urban Governance
Invited Reviews & Overviews
Nicole P. Marwell and Shannon Morrissey. 2020. "Organizations and the Governance of Urban Poverty." Annual Review of Sociology 46: 233–250. Invited Review
DOI Read more ↓
Nicole P. Marwell and Maoz Brown. 2020. "Towards a Governance Framework of Government-Nonprofit Relations." Chapter 9 in Walter Powell and Patricia Bromley (eds.), The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, 3rd Edition. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. Invited Review
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Articles & Book Chapters
Jennifer E. Mosley, Nicole P. Marwell, Emily Claypool and Cameron Day. 2024. "Impact, Equity and Philanthropic Foundations: Can Randomized Controlled Trials Help Account for The Democratic Deficit?" VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.
DOI Read more ↓
Nicole P. Marwell, Erez Aharon Marantz and Delia Baldassarri. 2020. "The Micro-Relations of Urban Governance: Patronage and Partnership." American Journal of Sociology 125: 1559–1601.
DOI Read more ↓
Jennifer E. Mosley, Nicole P. Marwell and Marci Ybarra. 2019. "Movement is Failing Human Service Organizations, and What Social Work Can Do to Fix It." Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership and Governance 43, 1: 326–335.
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Julia Koschinsky, Nicole P. Marwell and Raed Mansour. 2022. "Does Health Service Funding Go Where the Need Is? A Prototype Spatial Access Analysis for New Urban Contracts Data." BMC Health Services Research 22(45):1–12.
DOI Read more ↓
Nicole P. Marwell and Thad Calabrese. 2015. "A Deficit Model of Collaborative Governance: Government-Nonprofit Fiscal Relations in the Provision of Child Welfare Services." Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 25: 1031–1058.
DOI Read more ↓
Nicole P. Marwell and Michael McQuarrie. 2013. "People, Place and System: Organizations and the Renewal of Urban Social Theory." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences: 126–143.
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Nicole P. Marwell and Aaron Gullickson. 2013. "Inequality in the Spatial Allocation of Social Services: Government Contracts to New York City Nonprofit Organizations." Social Service Review 87: 319–353.
DOI Read more ↓
Nicole P. Marwell. 2010. "Political Change and the Institutionalization of the Nonprofit Service Delivery Infrastructure." In Elisabeth Clemens and Doug Guthrie, eds., Politics and Partnerships: Nonprofits and Associations in American Governance, pp. 209–236. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Michael McQuarrie and Nicole P. Marwell. 2009. "The Missing Organizational Dimension in Urban Sociology." City and Community 8, 3: 247–268.
DOI Read more ↓
Nicole P. Marwell and Paul-Brian McInerney. 2005. "The Nonprofit/For-Profit Continuum: Theorizing the Dynamics of Mixed-Form Markets." Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 34, 1: 7–28.
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Nicole P. Marwell. 2004. "Privatizing the Welfare State: Nonprofit Community-Based Organizations as Political Actors." American Sociological Review 69: 265–291.
Nicole P. Marwell. 2004. "Ethnic and Post-Ethnic Politics in New York City: The Dominican Second Generation." Pp. 257–284 in Philip Kasinitz, Mary Waters, and John Mollenkopf, eds., Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Background
Curriculum Vitae
Academic Appointments
Current
Professor
Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago
Faculty Affiliate, Department of Sociology
Affiliated Faculty, Data Science Institute
Faculty Director, A.M. in Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management
Prior
Associate Professor of Public Affairs
Baruch College, School of Public Affairs, City University of New York
Academic Director, Baruch College Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management
Associate Professor of Sociology
City University of New York, Graduate Center
Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor
Columbia University, Department of Sociology and Latina/o Studies Program
Education
Ph.D.
SociologyUniversity of Chicago
M.A.
SociologyUniversity of Chicago
B.A.
Religion, magna cum laudeColumbia College of Columbia University
Selected Grants & Fellowships
Current
University of Chicago AI Initiative ($225,000)
AI Innovation in Markets and Governance Project — Co-Lead (with Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, Nick Feamster, Jacob Leshno, and Lior Strahilevitz)
National Science Foundation ($750,000)
Strengthening American Infrastructure — The Legitimacy of Data-Driven Governance for Broadband Infrastructure (with Nick Feamster and Jared Schachner)
National Science Foundation ($500,000)
Internet Measurement Research: Methodologies, Tools, and Infrastructure — Measuring Internet Access Networks Across Space and Time (with Nick Feamster and Jared Schachner)
Past
Data Science Institute, University of Chicago ($1,000,000)
DSI Research Initiative — Internet Equity Initiative (with Nick Feamster)
W.T. Grant Foundation ($50,000)
Program on Improving the Use of Research Evidence — The Negotiation and Operationalization of Evidence in the Implementation of Child Welfare Policy (with Jennifer E. Mosley)
2019
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ($115,848)
Emerging Directions in the Study of the Data-Society Interface
2019
Public Interest Technology University Network ($180,000)
Network Challenge Grant — Data Science, Social Science, and Public Policy (with Christopher Berry)
2017
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ($139,821)
Public Health National Center for Innovations — Next-Generation Health and Human Service Infrastructure Platform (with Julia Koschinsky)
National Science Foundation, Science of Organizations Program ($239,522)
Collaborative Research: Patronage and Political Exchange Networks in a Municipal Legislature (with Delia Baldassarri)
Editorial Service
Current
Associate Editor
American Journal of Sociology
Editorial Board, Civic Sociology
Editorial Board, Social Service Review
Editorial Board, Contemporary Sociology
Editorial Board, ASA Rose Series in Sociology
Courses
Teaching
Doctoral · Crown Family School
Communities, Organizations, and Democracy: Key Challenges in Urban Governance
Weekly doctoral seminar developing theoretical tools to think about cities at the organizational level of analysis, with a focus on communities, community organizations, and public bureaucracies.
Master's · Crown Family School
Social Intervention: Policies and Programs I
Overview of contemporary social welfare policies affecting low-income families in the United States, with attention to their history.
Master's · Crown Family School
Social Intervention: Policies and Programs II
Examines different analytic frameworks illuminating the relationships between social problems, the policies intended to solve them, and the practices that result.
Master's · Crown Family School
Key Issues in Social Sector Governance
Develops key concepts for thinking about the social sector, including issues of public policy, markets, organizational practice, cultural beliefs, and individual action.
Master's · Crown Family School
Organizational Theory and Analysis for Human Services
Applies diverse organizational theories and perspectives to the analysis of social service organizations.
Undergraduate · Crown Family School
How Things Get Done in Cities and Why
Examines dynamics of interest representation, decision-making, and inclusion/exclusion in the contemporary city, drawing insights from multiple disciplines.
Get in Touch
Contact
Office
Edith Abbott Hall, Room E-11
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
