ABOUT
Claire Willeck is a data scientist, researcher, and writer whose work connects rigorous measurement with questions of meaning, education, and democracy.
She is a Senior Data Scientist at Netflix, where she applies methods in causal inference, experimentation, and forecasting to understand how creative and strategic initiatives shape engagement and business outcomes. Her work focuses on building clear, evidence-based frameworks for decision-making and success.
Claire earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Princeton University, where her award-winning dissertation, Active Civics: How Civic Education Shapes Political Engagement, examined how civic education can strengthen democratic engagement among young people. Her dissertation received the E. E. Schattschneider Award from the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in American government, along with numerous fellowships and research grants including the Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellowship, the Overdeck Innovation Fund, and the NSF-funded Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS) Special Competition.
Her academic research has appeared in leading journals, including Political Behavior (“How Colleges Can Increase Civic Engagement”) and the Annual Review of Political Science (“Education and Political Participation”). She is currently writing a book based on her dissertation, and developing academic papers, public talks, and op-eds on civic education and the future of democracy.
Before graduate school, Claire was a Senior Analyst at Cornerstone Research, conducting economic and financial analysis for litigation and regulatory matters.
Across her work in data science and research, Claire is driven by curiosity about how complex systems can be understood and improved whether through better measurement, clearer evidence, or deeper public insight.