Claire Kovach joined Keystone Research Center in 2020 and now serves as the research director. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Pennsylvania State University, where her research centered on poverty, stratification, multidimensional hardship experience, and statistical research methods. She has published research on a wide range of issues, including poverty, the minimum wage, political insurgency, and apprenticeship. She is passionate about doing work that aims to alleviate hardship experience and expose how expensive it is to be poor. A native of rural central Pennsylvania, Claire lives in Centre County with her husband.