We are pleased to announce that our 2025 C. Woody Thompson lecture will be given by Dr. C. Kirabo Jackson. He will present his lecture on Friday, March 21st at 5:45 pm. 

Dr. C. Kirabo Jackson is the Abraham Harris Professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He is also a professor of economics, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Currently, Jackson serves as the editor-in-chief of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. He was previously co-editor for the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and the Journal of Human Resources. He earned his bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University in 2002, and obtained his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 2007.

His research interests include labor economics, public finance, and applied econometrics, with a focus on the economics of education. His research has explored the role of teachers in the K-12 system, the causal impact of public school spending on students, methods to measure impacts on students’ socio-emotional skills, and other education-related subjects.

His work has been published in the highest-impact economics journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, The Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Review: Insights, The Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. His research findings have garnered attention from numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, and others.

In 2020, Jackson was elected to the National Academy of Education and received the David N. Kershaw Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management in recognition of his contributions to the field of public policy analysis and management. In 2022, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honor that celebrates excellence and leadership across various disciplines and practices.