Rebecca Hinze-Pifer is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership. She holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Chicago, a Master's of Public Policy from George Washington University, and a B.S. in astrophysics and computer science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Dr Hinze-Pifer's research focuses on school-based approaches to reducing social inequality, with particular focus on programs and practices influencing adolescent socioemotional development. Her work includes a mixture of randomized field experiments of school-based programs and quasi-experimental studies of using school administrative data to understand the impacts of school policies. Dr. Hinze-Pifer has published and presented on a range of related topics, including school discipline, teacher classroom management practices, and student responses to community violence.