Helen Ladd Elected to National Academy of Education
Public policy professor has taught at Duke since 1986
Duke University public policy professor Helen Ladd has been elected to the National Academy of Education.
Ladd, the Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, will be inducted into the society with 10 other new members at the NAED's annual meeting at George Washington University in October.
The National Academy of Education was established in 1965 to "promote scholarly inquiry and discussion concerning the ends and means of education, in all its forms, in the United States and abroad." The organization's 165 U.S. members, and foreign and other associates, are elected by academy members on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education.
The organization has sponsored numerous commissions and study panels that bring together academy members and other scholars around pressing issues in education. As part of its commitment to professional development of the next generation of scholars, the academy administers the NAED/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and the NAED/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program.
Ladd has taught at Duke since 1986 and serves as president of the Association for Public Policy and Management. She is also co-chair of the national campaign for a Broader, Bolder Approach to Education (Boldapproach.org).
Ladd's research focuses on education policy, including school accountability, education finance, teacher labor markets and school choice, both in the U.S. and other countries. She has also been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a senior research fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a three -time Fulbright grant recipient.
A graduate of Wellesley College and the London School of Economics, she earned her doctorate in economics at Harvard University, where she taught at the Kennedy School of Government before coming to Duke. She is the author of numerous articles and books in the fields of public finance and education policy.