The Institute
The Institute for Research and Evaluation (IRE) is a nonprofit research organization that has gained national recognition for its work evaluating sex education programs, particularly abstinence education interventions. IRE has conducted program evaluations for Title V, CBAE, and Title XX projects in 30 states and three foreign countries, collected data from more than 500,000 teens, and produced over one hundred studies of abstinence education during its 20-year history. IRE staff members have published several journal articles and frequently speak at professional conferences and workshops. Dr. Stan Weed, Founder and Senior Fellow at IRE, has served as a national consultant for Federal Title XX and CBAE projects, and was a charter member of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. He has been invited to provide expert testimony to state legislative bodies, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives (April, 2008), and the White House (June, 2009). IRE is directed by Paul Birch, who has been with the Institute for eight years.
Stan E. Weed, PhD—Founder and Senior Fellow
Dr. Weed completed his PhD in 1978 at the University of Washington in the field of Social Psychology. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in his field. His primary professional and research interest has been the social problems and preventive programs related to adolescents: teen pregnancy, drug abuse, and delinquency. His research has been published in scholarly professional journals and presented at meetings of the American Psychological Association, Academy of Management Association, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, American Evaluation Association, National Conference on Family Relations, and World Conference of Sociologists. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, and as a consultant to the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs in the Department of Health and Human Services. His work assessing the impact of current social policy on teen pregnancy has been cited on NBC TV and in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Readers Digest, and scores of newspapers around the country. It has also been presented in Washington D.C. at The White House, the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, the U.S. House Committee on Health and Transportation, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to legislative bodies in several states, and at Moscow University in Russia. He founded IRE in 1988.