Christina Paxson

Christina Hull Paxson (born February 6, 1960) is an economist, public health expert, and the current President of Brown University. Previously, she was the Hughes Rogers Professor of Economics & Public Affairs at Princeton University as well as the Dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

In March 2012 Paxson was elected the 19th president of Brown University. She officially succeeded Ruth Simmons on July 1, 2012 and was inaugurated on October 27, 2012.

Biography

Paxson received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1982, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1985 and 1987, respectively. In 2000, she founded the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton, an interdisciplinary research center based in the Woodrow Wilson School. She served as the chairman of Princeton’s Economics Department in academic year 2008–09. She was also the founding director of an NIA Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging at Princeton.

Paxson's most recent research focuses on the impact of childhood health and circumstances on economic and health outcomes over the lifecourse; the impact of the AIDS crisis on children's health and education in Africa; and the long run consequences of Hurricane Katrina on the mental and physical health of vulnerable populations. Paxson has been a Senior Editor of The Future of Children, an interdisciplinary journal that works to build a bridge between cutting edge social science research and the policy community.