William Elliott III

Senior Research Fellow, Asset Building Program

As a Senior Research Fellow in New America's Asset Building Program, Dr. William Elliott applies his research into the power of saving and the relationship between the act of saving and its impact on later success, particularly educational success.

Dr. Elliott is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Kansas, and currently serves as a faculty associate for the Center for Social Development. He also is a member on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Children and Poverty. Dr. Elliott is a leading researcher in the field of children's savings and college matriculation and success. He has written extensively on the relationship between assets and children's educational outcomes. His work has been featured by the Center for Social Development, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other major newspapers. Dr. Elliott was also a member of the evaluation team for the I Can Save project where he designed interview instruments, interviewed students, collected data, conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses, and wrote and published several scholarly papers. I Can Save is one of twelve sites of the “Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment” (SEED) national demonstration of Child Development Accounts. Additionally, Dr. Elliot has conducted research on The Pittsburgh Promise, a scholarship program for Pittsburgh Public School students. Combined, his work on these projects provides him with a wide variety of knowledge about CDAs, scholarship programs, and college success.