Equipping people with the information to meet their family goals.

Philosophy

We believe that, on average, people who want to build families will build happy ones. We observe that there is a gap between the number of children people want and the number they have—and that often information is what’s getting in the way. We’re here to remedy that situation.

Learn more via our Mythbuster Blog and Policy Blog.

Team

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Director

Peter Foreshaw Brookes

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Senior advisor

Dr. Lyman Stone

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Associate fellow

Bartek Staniszewski

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Senior advisor

Prof. Darby Saxbe

Researcher

Roberto Salvia

Consultant Analyst

Oliver Mears

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About the CFE

The Centre for Family and Education (CFE) was established by Peter R. Brookes because he saw a problem. Myths about family are everywhere — from fertility windows to climate impact. Bad information leads to bad decisions! The CFE counters myths, provides clarity on family issues and delivers policy suggestions for governments to better support people in their family aspirations.

Peter is the director of the CFE. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also works in education with various partners in East Asia.

Roberto Salvia

Roberto is a researcher at the CFE. Roberto read History and Modern Languages (Specialising in Russian) at the University of Cambridge and is currently studying for an LLM. He has previously worked as a parliamentary researcher and is currently researching how different conservative movements across the globe are developing policies to support family formation.

Oliver Mears

Oli is a consultant analyst for the CFE. Oli read Economics and Statistics at University College London (UCL). His research has spanned from optimal tax reform for policies to optimal planning reform.

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Bartek Staniszewski

Bartek is Associate Fellow at the CFE. Bartek Staniszewski is the Head of Policy at Bright Blue and the Director and Co-Founder of Bright Blue Europe. He read Philosophy at the University of Oxford and has been featured, among others, in the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Critic, City A.M., the Spectator and on the BBC and GB News. He is the author of numerous think-tank reports, including on planning policy, democratic business, young people’s political priorities, affordable housing, social security and race inequality. He is also as an IPR Policy Fellow.

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Lyman Stone

Lyman is Senior Advisor to the CFE. Lyman is a senior fellow and director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies. He is also the Director of Research at the consulting firm Demographic Intelligence and a PhD candidate at McGill University. His work has been covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Vox, and The Federalist, as well as numerous local outlets. He formerly worked as an international economist for USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and three daughters.

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Prof. Darby Saxbe

Prof. Saxbe is Senior Advisor to the CFE and Co-Director of the USC Center for the Changing Family. Her current work focuses on the transition to parenthood and the “fathering brain,” using neuroimaging to scan fathers both prenatally and again postpartum. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and she received a Fulbright Fellowship to study the parenting brain in Spain in fall 2019.