Nonna Sorokina, assistant professor of business at Penn State Scranton and Social Science Research Institute faculty affiliate, was recently awarded a Presidential Public Impact Research Award (PPIRA) for the project “Data-Driven Response to High Opioid Abuse Impact: Leveraging Machine Learning, AI, Health, Social and Economic Determinants”.
Sorokina’s research focuses on the economic implications of the opioid epidemic using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to forecast problem areas and identify factors associated with high risk for opioid disorder.
Sorokina credits the collaboration with Dusan Ramljak, assistant professor of information science and engineering at Penn State Great Valley, along with her graduate student research assistants and support of Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia colleagues for the development of the new project the award will help to support.
“We’re excited to receive the award, as it is a very competitive process,” Sorokina said. “The interdisciplinary aspects of the new project will allow expertise from a variety of disciplines to come together which will result in impactful prevention work to help combat the opioid epidemic.”
In addition to her nearly 15-years in academia, Sorokina has more than 25 years of experience in the financial industry focused on banking and quantitative methods in finance, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. Her current research focus includes the opioid epidemic and economic outcomes for underrepresented groups of population, and both came quite unexpectedly.
“While working in the finance industry, I attended a research seminar at nearby Temple University. The presenter talked about the opioid epidemic and how it was impacting firm performance and worker productivity. I was shocked to learn that rural areas were being devastated by it,” Sorokina explained.
“After hearing the presentation, I thought the epidemic must be impacting the banking industry as well. I started my first research project research on the subject in 2017. The paper was presented many times across the country and internationally and received a lot of attention. Our first publication with Wenli Li and Raluca Roman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia appeared in their Economic Insights quarterly publication in October 2023. The extended manuscript is now under review for publication in a scholarly journal.”
In addition to expanding her work, Sorokina hopes the award will help fund future research in preparation for larger external grants. “The work really aligns with my quantitative background and using sophisticated computational methods to combat community problems.”