Nicole Yadon built ISR connections into a career thanks to Next Generation Initiative funding
October 27, 2026
ANN ARBOR — Today, Nicole Yadon is a recognized and well-respected authority on the intersection of race and politics in America. She’s written two books on the subject and, with the help of Institute for Social Research’s (ISR) Mara Ostfeld, developed the first validated, interval-level scale of skin color used by social scientists in multiple disciplines.
But in 2013, the story was much different. Then, Yadon was a graduate student in the University of Michigan’s political science department, just getting started on the journey that would bring her to a tenured position at Ohio State University.
ISR would be a stepping stone on that journey, and Yadon’s relationship with ISR began with one of her dissertation advisors. That advisor was Vincent Hutchings, then the principal investigator for ISR’s American National Election Studies (ANES).
“I was very familiar with [the ANES] because it’s the gold standard for political surveys, and that relationship led to a formal appointment at ISR,” Yadon said.
Yadon began to work as a research assistant at ISR’s Center for Political Studies, and her relationship with ISR continued to grow as her other dissertation advisor, Ted Brader, also became a principal investigator for ANES. Though she still felt like she played only a small role in the larger workings of the organization, Yadon couldn’t help but note the significance of where she’d landed.
“I feel like it was an honor just to be at the place where the ANES was happening,” she said. “Being able to not only use the data, but to know all of the behind-the-scenes stuff that was happening to make it workable for people across the discipline and across the social sciences was really fantastic.”
Through her time in graduate school, Yadon would receive a number of grants for her dissertation research. One of the most significant grants was the Hanes Walton, Jr. Endowment for Graduate Study in Racial and Ethnic Politics. Yadon received the award in 2015, funding her project “In-Group Stereotypes, Skin Tone, & Policy Support among Blacks,” which studied, among other things, the issue of colorism in American politics. The data from this project helped serve as the foundation for future grant applications, including her NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant.
Yadon’s research was inspired in part by classes Yadon had taken with Hanes Walton himself. After studying under Walton in several classes as an undergraduate, she’d made the decision to pursue graduate school and political science, which led to the research that ultimately changed the trajectory of her career. Funding from Walton’s endowment didn’t hurt, either.
“I received that at a pretty pivotal moment,” Yadon said. “I was starting to collect data for the project that would become my dissertation, and that was really invaluable for preparing my dissertation proposal and to move on to larger data collection efforts.”
In addition to the financial support, Yadon’s overall experience at ISR was instrumental in positioning her for a career in the social sciences. Working at ISR gave her key practice and experience in many areas of work crucial to social science researchers, from pursuing funding to demonstrating the impact of her research to pitching herself for subsequent grant and research opportunities.
“Those opportunities were foundational to everything else I’ve continued to do in my career and what I now share with students who are doing their dissertation research.”
Yadon credits the involved faculty at ISR for helping her identify and practice those crucial skills, which, in addition to strengthening her research, also helped her as she approached the job market toward the end of her time at the University of Michigan. She received a tenure track job offer as she finished her graduate studies at U-M in 2020, and received tenure at Ohio State in 2025, the end result of a process that began with an interest in political science and a few connections to ISR.
“I’m incredibly grateful for ISR and the Center for Political Studies specifically,” Yadon said. “I think of it as very influential in who I am as a scholar. My career trajectory has been, in large part, thanks to ISR, its financial support, and their excellent affiliated faculty.”