Marianne Wanamaker Appointed Baker Center Executive Director
Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Marianne Wanamaker, associate professor of economics, to be the next executive director of UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. She begins July 1.
Marianne replaces former executive director Matt Murray, who has served in that role for nine years and announced his retirement in March.
Marianne brings a wealth of expertise, experience, and energy to this role. I look forward to working with her as we deepen the university’s commitment to engagement and support for the values to which Senator Howard Baker devoted his life.
She is a native of Martin, Tennessee, who joined the Haslam College of Business in 2009.
Recently Marianne served a year on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, first as senior labor economist and then as chief domestic economist. She was responsible for the administration’s economic analysis of labor, education, workforce, immigration, health care, environmental, and tax policy.
Her research interests include labor economics, education, American economic history, and demography. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, and other agencies.
Marianne also serves as a US member of the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence, an international effort to promote research and cooperation on responsible AI adoption; a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and a research fellow at the Institute for Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany, and at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She is a former member of the federal American Workforce Policy Advisory Board.
In addition to her research record, Marianne has been the recipient of several college- and university-level teaching awards, including UT’s Alexander Prize in 2019. In 2017, she was named to Poets and Quants’ Top 40 Undergraduate Professors.
Marianne is a 2001 graduate of Vanderbilt University with degrees in mathematics and economics, and earned her master’s and PhD in economics from Northwestern University in 2004 and 2009, respectively.
I’d like to offer my sincerest thanks to the search committee, chaired by Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Engagement Tyvi Small, for their time during this successful search process.
Please join me in congratulating Marianne.
Donde Plowman
Chancellor