Maria Padilla-Romo is the John Quincy and Wanda Weems Wisecarver Faculty Research Fellow and an associate professor of economics at Haslam. She is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a research fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics. Her research interests include labor economics, development economics and economics of education. At the core of Padilla-Romo’s research is an interest in improving policy design to reduce inequality and improve the well-being of vulnerable populations. Her recent and current work focuses on evaluating the consequences of violence and full-time schooling on education, labor, crime and health outcomes.