Scholar tackles education, health in developing nations

KALAMAZOO—An economist from Northwestern University will address challenges in governing education and health in developing nations later this month when she speaks at Western Michigan University as part of the Werner Sichel Lecture Series.

Dr. Seema Jayachandran, an associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Study of Development Economics at Northwestern University, will speak at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, in 2028 Brown Hall. Her presentation, titled "Governance Challenges in Education and Health in Developing Countries," is free and open to the public.

Dr. Seema Jayachandran

Jayachandran earned her doctoral degree in economics from Harvard University; a master's in physics and philosophy from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar; and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT. Prior to joining the Northwestern faculty, she was an assistant professor of economics at Stanford University and a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jayachandran's research interests span a wide range of topics in development economics. Much of her recent work focuses on maternal and child health in Africa and South Asia. She also has made contributions related to political economy, labor markets and environmental conservation in developing countries.

Jayachandran is an affiliate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, International Growth Centre and Innovations for Poverty Action. She previously worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co.

The Sichel Series

The Sichel Series is organized by the WMU Department of Economics and named in honor of longtime WMU economics professor Dr. Werner Sichel, who retired in 2004. The series is annually cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.