James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Give The Graduate Center a $2.5 Million Gift to Research Socio-Economic Inequality
Luxembourg Income Study Center to Be Renamed as the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality

/EINPresswire.com/ -- The Graduate Center of the City University of New York announced today a gift of $2.5 million bestowed by James and Cathleen Stone to research wealth and income inequality and other aspects of socio-economic inequality.
In recognition of the gift, the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Center will be renamed the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality*. Professor Janet Gornick, who has led the LIS Center since its establishment at the Graduate Center in 2009, will continue to serve as Director.
Jim Stone's career has included positions in academia, government, and business. He is the author of a current book on public policy. Cathy Stone is a lawyer and former city government executive, with particular interests in issues of the environment and education.
"The Graduate Center is delighted to receive this generous gift from Jim and Cathy Stone," said Chase F. Robinson, President of the Graduate Center. "These new resources will enable the Graduate Center and the Stone Center to expand and enhance our research and teaching in the quantitative study of inequality, an increasingly influential field in which our faculty are taking leading roles."
The mission of the Stone Center is to build and disseminate knowledge related to the causes, nature, and consequences of socio-economic inequality, with particular focus on inequality at the top end of the spectrum.
"We are pleased to support the Graduate Center at CUNY and expand its work examining economic inequality, an issue we feel is fundamental to solve in this country," said Jim and Cathy Stone. "We have tremendous confidence in the leadership and talent of Janet Gornick and her team."
The Stone Center will house the U.S. Office of LIS, which is the partner of the Luxembourg Office of LIS. The two LIS offices collaborate to carry out the work of LIS, a renowned cross-national data archive that now includes data from 50 countries.
The gift will make possible a wide array of public programs, conversations and three lectures series, including a student-run series on inequality research, the interdisciplinary Lee Rainwater Memorial Lecture Series beginning next year, and the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Lecture Series on Wealth Inequality, also being launched in 2017.
"I am immensely grateful for this gift from Jim and Cathy Stone, as are my colleagues in our partner office in Luxembourg and here at the Graduate Center," said Gornick. "These funds will enable us to carry out new work on a topic that the Stones care deeply about -- the concentration of income and wealth among the most affluent -- and to supplement that with several initiatives that concern other facets of socio-economic inequality."
Graduate Center faculty in the Stone Center will include Gornick, Leslie McCall, Paul Krugman, and Branko Milanovic. Leslie McCall also serves as its Associate Director. These faculty teach a number of courses at the Graduate Center related to inequality, cutting across the disciplines of political science, sociology and economics.
Each summer the Stone Center hosts a one-week intensive workshop on inequality research for Ph.D. students and other young scholars. It also hosts a series of research and policy briefs based on data contained in the Luxembourg Income Study Database and/or the Luxembourg Wealth Study Database, and authored by Graduate Center faculty and students.
To learn more, visit gc.cuny.edu/stonecenter. For interview requests with faculty and the Stones, please contact Tanya Domi, tdomi@gc.cuny.edu, 212-817-7283.
*Subject to CUNY Board of Trustees' approval.
About the Graduate Center, CUNY
The Graduate Center (GC) is the focal point for advanced teaching and research at the City University of New York (CUNY), the nation's largest urban public university. Devoted exclusively to graduate education, the GC fosters pioneering research and scholarship in the arts and sciences, and trains students for careers in universities and the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. With over 35 doctoral and master's programs of the highest caliber, and 20 research centers, institutes, and initiatives, the GC benefits from highly ambitious and diverse students and alumni -- who in turn teach hundreds of thousands of undergraduates every year. Through its public programs, the GC enhances New York City's intellectual and cultural life. Visit www.gc.cuny.edu to learn more.
Media contact:
Tanya Domi
tdomi@gc.cuny.edu
212-817-7283
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