Christina Paxson | |
|---|---|
| Paxson in 2012 | |
| 19th President of Brown University | |
| Assumed office July 1, 2012 | |
| Preceded by | Ruth Simmons |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Christina Hull Paxson February 6,1960 |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Swarthmore College (BA) Columbia University (MA,PhD) |
| Academic background | |
| Thesis | Three essays in economics:Borrowing constraints and hours constraints (1987) |
| Doctoral advisor | Joseph Altonji |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Economics |
| Institutions | |
Christina Hull Paxson (born February 6, 1960) is an American economist who has been serving as the 19th president of Brown University since July 2012. She previously served as dean of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Paxson spent her childhood in Forest Hills, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
Paxson received a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College in 1982, where she majored in economics and minored in English and philosophy. She was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. [1] [2]
Pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University, Paxson transferred from the Columbia Business School to the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, receiving a Master of Arts in 1985 and a Doctor of Philosophy in economics in 1985, with a focus on labor. [3] [4] Paxson was advised by Joseph Altonji, and her dissertation involved analyzing the effects of consumer interest rates on the consumer credit market. [4]
In 2000, Paxson founded the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University, an interdisciplinary research center based in the Woodrow Wilson School. She served as the chair of Princeton's Economics Department in academic year 2008–09. Paxson was also the founding director of an NIA Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging at Princeton.[ clarification needed ] [3] During her time at Princeton, Paxson also served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. [5]
Paxson's research focuses on the impact of childhood health and circumstances on economic and health outcomes over the lifecourse; the impact of the AIDS crisis on children's health and education in Africa; [6] and the long run consequences of Hurricane Katrina on the mental and physical health of vulnerable populations. [7] Paxson has been a Senior Editor of The Future of Children , an interdisciplinary journal that works to build a bridge between cutting edge social science research and the policy community.
Paxson sustained undergraduate financial aid as the fastest-growing area of Brown's budget by increasing scholarships for low-income families and eliminating loans from university-awarded financial aid packages, as part of The Brown Promise, in addition to Brown's Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion action plan. [8]
Under Paxson's leadership, the University has established a School of Public Health as well as a number of centers and institutes including the Brown Arts Institute, the Brown Institute for Translational Science, the Data Science Initiative, and the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship.
Paxson has overseen an expansion of Brown's academic, performing arts, and residential facilities. Expansion of Brown's physical footprint under Paxson's leadership has been controversial, at times spurring criticism from community organizations and preservation groups. [9] [10] [11] [12]
In 2019, she told the university that she would not implement a BDS platform after a student passed referendum in favor of such, with 27.5% of students voting. She also said she could not make public the details of the university's investments. [13] [14]
A fall 2021 poll by The Brown Daily Herald found that 47.1% of surveyed students "strongly" or "somewhat" disapproved of Paxson's leadership while 32.8% "strongly" or "somewhat" approved. [15] The publication's fall 2017 poll placed Paxson's approval rating at 61.9%. [16] [17]
In 2013, Paxson wrote a New Republic op-ed arguing for the humanities' ongoing relevance from an economist's perspective. [18] She has also maintained other institutional affiliations: in addition to being a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. [19] [20]
In 2016, she became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. After serving as its deputy chair, she became the chair of its board of directors in 2021. [21] [22]
In 2018, Paxson received an honorary doctorate from Williams College. [23]
In wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paxson wrote a New York Times op-ed and appeared on CNN to give her views on the importance of reopening colleges safely in the fall of 2020. [24] [25] On June 4, 2020, she testified before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, during a hearing titled "COVID-19: Going Back to College Safely." [26]
Paxson is married to Ari Gabinet. [27] They have two children, Nicholas and Benjamin, both Brown University graduates (MD and undergrad, respectively). [28] [4] Raised a Quaker, she converted to her husband's Jewish faith. [29]