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Brookings scholars provide groundbreaking research, data, and commentary on vital social and cultural issues, including racial equity, LGBTQ+ issues, gender equality, socioeconomic equality, and emerging social norms and trends. Their work helps officials, practitioners, and community leaders better understand the dynamics, shifts, and inequities affecting our society, and how to craft effective policy solutions.
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Lauren Bauer headshot
Lauren Bauer Fellow - Economic Studies, Associate Director - The Hamilton Project

Tara Watson headshot
Tara Watson Director - Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair, Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Jonathan Rauch Senior Fellow - Governance Studies, Center for Effective Public Management (CEPM)

Renee Cummings
Renée Cummings Nonresident Senior Fellow - Governance Studies, Center for Technology Innovation (CTI)
Melissa Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at University of Maryland, researching domestic social policy, poverty, and inequality. Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, she’s a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution. Previously, Kearney directed the Hamilton Project at Brookings and co-chaired J-PAL’s State and Local Innovation Initiative. She is a senior editor of the Princeton/Brookings journal The Future of Children, editorial board member of American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Journal of Economic Literature, and advisory board member for the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, Smith Richardson Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation.Melissa S. Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group; a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings; a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO); and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She is a senior editor of the Future of Children, an editorial board member of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Journal of Economic Literature, and a former co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. She serves on the Board of Governors of the Smith Richardson Foundation. Kearney served as Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings from 2013-2015 and as co-chair of the JPAL State and Local Innovation Initiative from 2015-2018.Kearney's academic research focuses on domestic policy issues, especially issues related to social policy, poverty, and inequality. Her work has been published in leading academic journals and has been frequently cited in the popular press. She has testified before Congress on the topic of U.S. income inequality. Kearney teaches Public Economics at both the undergraduate and PhD level at the University of Maryland. She holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied on a National Science Foundation graduate student fellowship and a Harry S Truman fellowship.
Melissa S. Kearney Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, The Hamilton Project

Marcela Escobari
Marcela Escobari Senior Fellow - Global Economy and Development
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