Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach is an economist who studies policies aimed at improving the lives of children in poverty, including education, health, and income support policies. Her work traces the impact of major public policies such as the Food Stamp Program, school finance reform, and early childhood education on children’s long-term outcomes. She is the Margaret Walker Alexander professor in Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy.
Schanzenbach has published in many top-tier economics journals. Her research is regularly cited in top media outlets, and she has testified before both the Senate and House of Representatives on her research.
From 2015–17, she served as director of The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, and from September 2017 until July 2023, she was director of Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a research associate at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the National Academy of Social Insurance.
