Faculty Spotlight

Why Policy is Fundamental Towards Societal Change

Posted Oct 18 2022

Professor Sandra Black is a labor economist whose work is at the intersection of academia and policy. Her renowned scholarship on wealth inequality and the outcomes of children led her to Barack Obama’s White House, where she served on the Council of Economic Advisers.

At SIPA, Black teaches Making US Economic and Social Policy, in which students learn how to turn research and data into meaningful policy that can transform lives.

“When I'm teaching policy students, I love talking about my experience and kind of integrating that with the research that I do and say, ‘Well, how is research applied in the policy environment? And how do people use it?’ I think policy is fundamental towards changing.”