IPSR Director Donna Ginther

Donna is responsible for developing the IPSR multi-disciplinary research program by engaging faculty from across the university and overseeing the management and direction of the Institute. Under her leadership, IPSR continues to be an international center for research on some of today’s most pressing topics, including the human dimensions of climate change, race and gender questions in the scientific workforce, urban sustainability, indigenous communities, environmental policy, and human trafficking.

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Donna Ginther
IPSR Director Donna K. Ginther

Donna K. Ginther is the Roy A. Roberts & Regents Distinguished Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining the University of Kansas faculty, she was a research economist and associate policy adviser in the regional group of the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2000 to 2002 and taught at Washington University from 1997 to 2000 and Southern Methodist University from 1995 to 1997. Her major fields of study are scientific labor markets, gender differences in employment outcomes, wage inequality, science policy, and investments in children.

Dr. Ginther has published in several journals, including Science, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Demography, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, and the Papers and Proceedings of the American Economic Association.  She has also received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.   Her research has been featured in several media outlets including the Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, NPR, and the Boston Globe.

Dr. Ginther testified before the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education of the U.S. House of Representatives on the Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Act of 2008 and the Working Group on Women in the 21st Century Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives. Dr. Ginther has advised the National Academies of Science, the National Institutes of Health, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation on the diversity and future of the scientific workforce. She is currently Vice President of the Southern Economic Association and previously served on its Board. She is a member of the American Economic Association Committee on Equity, Diversity and Professional Conduct and previously served on the Nominations Committee and the Board of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession.

A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Ginther received her doctorate in economics in 1995, master's degree in economics in 1991, and bachelor of arts in economics in 1987, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Read more about Dr. Ginther's research, teaching, and accomplishments on her profile page.