Weiwei, a senior research scientist in the Public Health department, is a trained Criminologist and a Prevention Scientist with two decades of experience studying risk and protective factors of violence, substance use, and other problem behaviors. Weiwei led over two dozen epidemiological studies and program evaluations covering topics including policing, youth violence prevention, law enforcement safety, police use of force, substance use, and sexual violence prevention in both the military and the civilian settings. Weiwei received funding from DoD SAPRO, NIJ, CDC, NIH, SAMHSA, Hilton Foundation, and the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research. Weiwei’s methodological expertise is reflected in all areas of study design, sampling methodologies, and statistical analyses. She is an expert in applying latent variable modeling to analyze large longitudinal and complex survey data.

Weiwei co-leads a series of three studies on police-involved firearm shooting funded by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research: a national survey of law enforcement agencies to estimate the number of police-involved firearm shootings in the past ten years, the collection of incident-level data regarding over 7,000 use-of-force incidents in the past five years, and a qualitative study of the implementation of red flag law in the context of officer safety and use-of-force. For the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), Weiwei leads one of the five projects evaluating programs to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault for military service personnel. Weiwei co-leads two large NIJ-funded projects evaluating place-based policing strategies implemented in crime hotspots in five cities on the East Coast.

Prior to joining NORC, Weiwei worked as a Lead Research Analyst at the Prevention and Early Intervention Research Center (PIRC) at Johns Hopkins University, where she worked closely with internationally renowned evaluation experts including Drs. Nick Ialongo, Liz Stuart, Sheppard Kellam, Hanno Petras, Katherine Masyn, Silvia Martins, Peg Ensminger and Carla Storr. Weiwei has published 60 peer-reviewed journal publications, books, and book chapters. In recognition of her research leadership, she also serves on the editorial board of Prevention Science, the official journal of Society for Prevention Research. Weiwei serves as a reviewer for over a dozen academic journals and on the conference abstract review committee for Society for Prevention Research.