Nelson Lim

Media Resources

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Senior Social Scientist; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology, University of California, Los Angeles; B.A. in economics, University of California, Los Angeles

Overview

Biography

Nelson Lim is a senior social scientist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Lim serves as research director for the Military Leadership Diversity Commission, which is conducting a comprehensive evaluation and assessment of policies that provide opportunities for the promotion and advancement of minority members of the Armed Forces, including minority members who are senior officers. Other research interests include military manpower analysis, diversity management, and police recruiting. He has conducted studies of military recruiting and retention of active-duty as well as reserve components for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force (USAF). In addition, Lim has examined the influence of military life conditions on the labor market situations of military spouses. He has also conducted research on the most effective diversity practices by Fortune 500 companies, and on barriers to improve diversity among the leadership of various government agencies and corporations, including the National Security Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Army, and USAF. Lim most recently led studies specifically designed to assist police departments, including the San Diego Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, in alleviating recruiting difficulties. Lim received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

Improving diversity among the military leadership
Effective practices of diversity management in the private sector
Impact of military service on employment condition of military spouses
Improving police department recruiting practices

Selected Publications

Jessica Saunders, Nelson Lim, and Donald Prosnitz, Enforcing Immigration Law at the State and Local Levels: A Public Policy Dilemma, RAND Corporation (OP-273), 2010

Bing Han and Nelson Lim, "Estimating Conditional Proportion Curves by Regression Residuals," Statistics in Medicine, 29(13), 2010

Nelson Lim and David Schulker, Measuring Underemployment Among Military Spouses, RAND Corporation (MG-918-OSD), 2010

Nelson Lim, Jefferson P. Marquis, Kimberly Curry Hall, David Schulker, and Xiaohui Zhuo, Officer Classification and the Future of Diversity Among Senior Military Leaders: Case Study of the Army ROTC, RAND Corporation (TR-731-OSD), 2009

Nelson Lim, Carl Matthies, Greg Ridgeway, and Brian Gifford, To Protect and To Serve: Enhancing the Efficiency of LAPD Recruiting, RAND Corporation (MG-881-RMPF), 2009

Nelson Lim, Michelle Cho, and Kimberly Curry, Planning for Diversity: Options and Recommendations for DOD Leaders, RAND Corporation (MG-743-OSD), 2008

Jefferson P. Marquis, Nelson Lim, Lynn Scott, Margaret C. Harrell, and Jennifer Kavanagh, Managing Diversity in Corporate America: An Exploratory Analysis, RAND Corporation (OP-206-RC), 2007

Brian K. Finch, Nelson Lim, William Perez, and D. Phuong Do, "Towards a Population Health Model of Segmented Assimilation: The Case of Low Birth-Weight in Los Angeles," Sociological Perspectives, 50(3):445-468, 2007