POSING and addressing questions of import

We are a Cambridge-based philanthropy taking on questions others have deemed unanswerable.

Our current questions

We have historically focused on a limited number of hard questions of national and global importance.

One current priority is quantifying the influence of money on American politics and government. We have also undertaken initiatives in the perhaps-forlorn hope of increasing the likelihood of a near-term end -- acceptable to both sides -- to Russia's war against Ukraine.

QUery On Inc. (QUOI) was founded in 2008. Its competitively-awarded grants have supported academic researchers, non-academic investigators, and other practitioners and organizations. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation, QUOI is funded by the tax-deductible contributions of its founders. QUOI regularly engages undergraduates and members of the broader Harvard community in achieving its mission.

Research Board + Team

Alan B. Cohen, Sc.D.

Alan B. Cohen, Sc.D., is Editor of The Milbank Quarterly and a former professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business and School of Public Health, where he also led the Health Policy Institute and the Health Care MBA Program. He directed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program from 1992 to 2016 and its Investigator Awards program from 2013 to 2018, having earlier served as the Foundation's Vice President for Research and Evaluation and held faculty posts at Johns Hopkins and Brandeis. An elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, he holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester and an M.S. and Sc.D. from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Cindy A. Lewis

Cindy A. Lewis’ professional background includes 13 years as an in-house corporate lawyer, where her primary responsibilities were to advise on environmental, health and safety law. She later got a Master's in Education and taught history to high school students in Arlington, MA. Most recently, she worked at the Federation for Children with Special Needs as coordinator of the Parent Information Center. She also spent several years supporting kids in state custody through the Massachusetts Special Education Surrogate Parent Program. Ms. Lewis received her B.A. at Middlebury College, her J.D. at Boston College Law School, and her M.Ed. at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Matthew R. Minier

Matthew Minier is Managing Director, Fund Management at Equity Resource Investments, which he joined in 2000 at the firm's predecessor. He oversees the management and reporting of ERI's investment vehicles and their underlying holdings, with particular focus on investor and management reporting, valuation, and investment performance modeling. Matt is a CFA charterholder and a member of CFA Society Boston. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Colgate University.

James R. Thompson

James R. Thompson is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Illinois – Chicago. Dr. Thompson’s primary research interests are in the areas of human resource management, the federal civil service and organizational change in the public sector. Dr. Thompson received his Ph.D. from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 1996.

Mark S. Thompson, Co-Founder

Mark S. Thompson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sfax, Tunisia. He holds the first Ph.D. conferred by Harvard University in the field of Public Policy. Between 1975 and 1983, he was Assistant, then Associate, Professor, teaching courses on decision science, game theory, and social program evaluation at the Harvard School of Public Health and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has been a visiting professor at the Université de Paris and the Universität Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. He has sole-authored six books, most recently, World War II Battles Reconsidered (McFarland, 2025) and The Boss in American Government: William M. Tweed and His Successors in Corruption (McFarland, 2026).

Nicolas Jofre - Lead

Between 2016 and 2025, Nicolas was head of product for two data science companies in consumer credit. He began his career in education reform and social impact investing, including an appointment to the California State Board of Education, where he led its student feedback forum. He holds an AB in Social Studies with Honors from Harvard College, where he served on the Scholars at Risk Faculty Committee and worked closely with university leadership on its response to federal immigration actions affecting students.

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