Verity Lab
Truth for the Public Good
About
The Verity Research Lab is an applied social science consulting lab based at Wheaton College that partners with nonprofits, churches, and policy organizations to produce rigorous, policy-relevant research on issues that matter for the common good. Every project combines the expertise of a senior Ph.D. faculty director with the energy and dedication of a team of advanced undergraduate students — delivering professional-grade research while simultaneously forming the next generation of Christian public leaders.
The lab also serves as a training environment where advanced undergraduate students produce rigorous, data-driven reports coauthored with Ph.D. researchers. We partner with external organizations to design, execute, and publish commissioned studies on topics of public significance. Past projects have examined the ideological gap in fertility across the United States, explored faith, political engagement, and social belonging among Christians in Scotland, and investigated medical debt erasure as a vehicle for church-based community ministry.
Why Partner With Us
What We Do
Partnership
The Lab provides tailored consulting services from conception to completion. Each engagement begins with a careful intake process to establish scope, objectives, and deliverables, and proceeds through a structured six-phase methodology: initial project proposal, empirical strategy development, data collection and processing, statistical analysis and visualization, final reporting and presentation, and public dissemination.
Throughout each phase, partner organizations are kept closely informed, with opportunities for feedback and review built into the process. The end product is a full-scale, professionalized research report of 50–100 pages, co-authored by the student research team and the directing faculty member. Reports include an executive summary, detailed methodology, interpreted findings, and strategic actionable recommendations, as well as highly stylized graphs, tables, and maps that make complex data accessible and compelling.
Where partners wish, the Lab also collaborates on a press and media strategy to maximize the visibility and impact of the findings. Partner organizations retain full ownership of their data and control over the dissemination of results. Each research team works exclusively for its assigned partner across a four-month academic term, generating approximately 550 consulting hours of dedicated work. This depth of engagement means partners receive not just a report, but a genuine research collaboration — one shaped by their mission, their questions, and their goals.
Truth for The Public Good
Organizations that partner with the Lab gain more than research. They gain a committed team invested in their mission, a rigorous methodology that produces findings they can stand behind, and a final product designed for real-world use — whether that means informing legislation, shaping ministry strategy, or making a public case for a cause that matters. At the same time, partners play a direct role in training and forming young Christian scholars and future policy leaders, equipping them with the skills, habits of mind, and sense of vocation to engage faithfully in the public square for years to come.
Meet Dr. Timothy Taylor
Our Director Dr. Timothy W. Taylor is the Director of Verity and an Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Wheaton College, where he specializes in political economy, comparative politics, and quantitative methodology. He also coordinates the Aequitas Fellows Program in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. His research has appeared in academic journals as well as popular outlets including Christianity Today and The Huffington Post, and he has won numerous awards for research conducted with students, including the Hatfield Prize and the Rothchild Memorial Research Award. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.
Interested in partnering with the Verity Research Lab?
Contact Dr. Taylor at Tim.Taylor@wheaton.edu to learn more.
