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But in March, Brownannounced that it founda worthy successor in aColumbia-bred economist:Christina Paxson, M.A.’85, Ph.D. ’87 and thecelebrated dean of PrincetonUniversity’s WoodrowWilson School of Publicand International Affairs,was named the school’snineteenth president —and second female head —starting July 1.“Ruth Simmons did atremendous job at raisingthe aspirations of theBrown community tonot only provide an outstandingundergraduateeducation, but to also bea major research university,”Paxson said. “Brownis really doing somethinginteresting and difficult,and I’m excited to be a partof figuring out how you doboth at the same time.“I’ve been there [at Princeton]for 26 years, so itwas odd leaving, but bythe time I left, I had somany goodbye parties thatI think people were readyto see me go,” she said,laughing.Paxson’s move to the helmof academic administrationcomes after a periodof intense research and administrativeproductivity.After becoming dean ofthe Woodrow WilsonSchool in 2009, Paxsonoversaw major changes inthe school, including theelimination of selectiveundergraduate admissionsand a thorough revampof the curriculum, all inthe wake of a distractinglawsuit surrounding one ofthe school’s philanthropicfunding partners. She alsoestablished the Julis-RabinowitzCenter for PublicPolicy and Finance andincreased research opportunitiesrelated to domesticand international financialmarkets.At the same time, shemaintained a brisk publicationschedule, co-authoringpapers examining theeffect of economic factorson the health and welfareof aging populations andchildren in post-KatrinaNew Orleans, rural Ecuador,and sub-SaharanAfrica.“It is remarkable that shehas maintained a high levelof research productivityover the past several years,even with a heavy administrativeload,” said JanetCurrie, a Princeton economicsprofessor and thedirector of the Center forHealth and Wellbeing, aninterdisciplinary researchand education institutededicated to health policywithin the WoodrowWilson School that Paxsonfounded in 2000.“Her recent work on thelong-term impacts ofhealth in childhood, orabout the impact of AIDSon health care budgets inAfrica, or about the impactof Hurricane Katrina, isreally first-rate, and widelycited,” Currie said.Her most widely knownpaper might be a 2008publication from the Journalof Political Economy,where she found thatheight and intelligencewere correlated even inearly childhood. Paxsonattributes her focus on thesocioeconomics of health,in particular the health ofchildren and families, toher interests evolving asshe grew to enjoy multidisciplinaryresearch andadjusted to the strengths ofthe Princeton economicsdepartment.In fact, her researchinterest at Columbia wasmarkedly different; shestudied labor supply underthe mentorship of JosephAltonji.“She was the best studentI ever had,” said Altonji,now a professor at Yale.“She just had real driveand energy level and rawintelligence with interpersonalskills ... the graduatestudent we all want.”“I loved my time at Columbia.It was great,” Paxsonsaid. “Being in a Ph.D.Link back to contents page12 Superscript
program was one of themost intense experiencesof my life. I worked incrediblyhard, and I loved it becausethere was a supportive,very successful groupof people around me.”She also fondly recalls hertime spent outside of theclassroom with her collegesweetheart-turned-husband.“My husband wasworking as a young attorney,so we had slightly betterfinancial circumstancesthan the average graduatecouple,” she recalls. Thepair would travel to the Villageto hear jazz or spendentire days walking thelength of Manhattan.After Columbia, sheheaded to Princeton, initiallyserving as a lecturerand then as an assistantprofessor. Over the nexttwo decades she earnedfive annual awards forteaching excellence androse through the ranks ofthe Princeton economicsdepartment, becominga full professor in 1997,then holding an endowedprofessorship and servingas chair of the economicsdepartment before beingnamed dean of the WoodrowWilson School.strike a balance betweentheir personal and professionallives—until June thefamily lived in Yardley, Pa.,and both endured out-ofstatecommutes to theirjobs. After the move toProvidence, her husbandkept a part-time apartmentin New York while theirteenage son enrolled inhis current high school’sboarding program.Paxson admits that combiningher academic careerwith motherhood was notalways easy.“It’s a myth that academicsare flexible,” she said.“People work very hardall the time, and I’m thetype of person who likes towork in the office.”It’s a common refrain,as more women admit toleaving academia becausethey feel unsupported andoutnumbered. Indeed, Paxsonsaid she experiencedsome of these challengeswhile she was just startingout in graduate school.“When I was at Columbia,there were five women inour class. There was a timein Princeton where I wasthe only woman on thefaculty to have tenure,” shesaid. “Those periods werehard. Not because I facedany discrimination, butbecause it was just kind oflonely.”It was then that Paxsongot more involved at theuniversity level and befriendedmore womeninside and outside herdepartment. Princeton“I loved my time at Columbia. It was great.Being in a Ph.D. program was one of themost intense experiences of my life. I workedincredibly hard, and I loved it because therewas a supportive, very successful group ofpeople around me.”During her time at Princetonshe also became amother to two sons, now23 and 15. She and herhusband have worked toSuperscript 13Link back to contents page
Page 1 and 2: SuperscriptVolume 3, Issue 1Fall 20
Page 4 and 5: CharlesLeilaLink DickensKhaled. Pho
Page 6 and 7: shared the same themes, the same fr
Page 8 and 9: “One learns one is not alone,”
Page 10 and 11: “You’re Being Sensitive Again..
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Page 16 and 17: “It’s great that women are univ
Page 18 and 19: Presidents Havel, Bollinger,and Cli
Page 20 and 21: Although Warren grew up in a union
Page 22 and 23: content or satisfied simply being a
Page 24 and 25: Link back to contents page22 Supers
Page 26 and 27: “[Fencing for Columbia] helped me
Page 28 and 29: Alumni News | Graduate School of Ar
Page 30 and 31: Alumni ProfileLouis ParksGraduate S
Page 32 and 33: On the ShelfFACULTY PUBLICATIONSThe
Page 34: On the ShelfALUMNI PUBLICATIONSIn S
Page 37 and 38: The Cultural Politics of Twentieth-
Page 39 and 40: Daniel David MacDougall. Singlemole
Page 41 and 42: Alexander Vincent Penson. Searchfor
Page 43 and 44: Teachers College: Sociology andEduc
Page 45 and 46: Joseph Woo with Provost John Coatsw
Page 47 and 48: GSAS Annual FundEach year, the Grad
Page 49 and 50: $1,000 to $2,499continuedDr. Sam H.
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