The Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity is at the University of North Carolina. Gene Nichol, a law professor at the university, is director.

The Center for Poverty Research is at the University of Kentucky. James P. Ziliak, who holds the Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics, is director.

The Center for the Study of Urban Poverty is at the University of California, Los Angeles. The director is Abel Valenzuela Jr., professor of Chicana and Chicano studies, who has expertise in urban poverty and immigration issues.

The Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality is at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. Charles Varner is the associate director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Contact through the website.

The Center for Comparative Family Welfare and Poverty Research is at the University of California Berkeley. The director is Neil Gilbert, Milton and Gertrude Chernin Professor of Social Welfare and Social Services, who wrote Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public Responsibility.

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire conducts policy research on vulnerable children, youth and families and on sustainable community development. Michael Ettlinger is the director. Contact Amy Sterndale, communications director.

The Bertram M. Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty is at Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y. Anita Lightburn is director and associate professor of social service.

Carolyn Rexius is director of Christians Addressing Family Abuse in Eugene, Oregon.

Adriana Caldara is executive director of the Support Network for Battered Women in Sunnyvale, Calif. Since 1998, the network has been working with local faith leaders to improve their response to domestic violence.