CSWEP Board Member - Rachel Willis

Dr. Rachel A. Willis is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a B.A. in Political Science and a B.S. in Economics from the University of California at Riverside, a M.A. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University. Her research focuses on factors affecting access to work including work/family balance policies, transportation, education, gender, race, and health. She has received grants and fellowships from numerous sources including the Russell Sage and Rockefeller Foundations' Future of Work Program, the National Science Foundation, The Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, The Ford Foundation, The Department of Education, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Current research projects are focusing on the value of benefits and the future of US manufacturing jobs. She has won more than a dozen teaching and public service awards for her research and public policy initiatives including the 1997 William C. Friday Award, two Chancellor nominations for the Campus Compact's Thomas Ehrlich Service Learning Award, and the 1994 Undergraduate Teaching Award. Willis is a Chapman Fellow at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, and regularly employs service learning pedagogy in her classes. She was a founding member of the Carolina Center for Public Service and the Carolina Women's center. She has served Chapel Hill, UNC, and the Research Triangle through more than a decade of public service on various transportation and planning boards, committees, and task forces. She is currently serving as the Chair of the Triangle Transit Authority Board of Trustees.

Send e-mail to rawillis@email.unc.edu

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