“I am a complete problem-solving junkie,” Farley said. “I really love solving problems.”

That’s one of the messages he plans to share with Class of 2026 graduating seniors as the Georgetown University ������Ƶ & Sciences on Saturday, May 16, at Healy Lawn, where he will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. 

“I hope our graduates will be inspired by Jim’s story,” said , the dean of the ������Ƶ & Sciences. “I hope they will see the empowerment that comes with a Georgetown degree, and I hope they will imagine for themselves a life of leadership and service.”

Farley, who has worked for Ford since 2007 and has led the company since 2020, graduated from the College in 1985 with an economics degree. His father, James D. Farley (SFS’50) earned a degree from the School of Foreign Service in 1950, and Farley also met his wife, Cornelia “Lia” Connor-Farley (C’87), while they were students. Farley said in a recent interview with the College that the Jesuit liberal arts education he received at Georgetown helped him develop an affinity for problem solving and the curiosity required to find solutions.

“Most of life and the satisfaction of life can be greatly enhanced by a conscious decision to fall in love with problem solving and to develop your own framework for solving problems that’s personalized for you based on the foundation at Georgetown,” Farley said of his advice for students. “So get ready, because the world needs problem solvers.”

A Sense of Curiosity

Farley’s life on the Hilltop was different from a lot of his peers. 

Aside from his first year, Farley said that he worked 20 to 40 hours every week as a student. One of those jobs was on Capitol Hill, before he switched his major from government to economics. 

Farley also loved cars. Most of his friends, he said, didn’t care for them and viewed cars simply as transportation. At Georgetown, Farley drove a 1965 Ford Mustang, the same car he used to drive across the country when he was a teenager. His grandfather, Emmet E. Tracy, started working , and Farley would often visit him in Michigan during school breaks, where they bonded over their love of cars.

“I love cars because they’re very complicated consumer products,” Farley said. “They’re an experiential product. You can see the world on your computer, but you experience it in a car.”

At Georgetown, he learned from his professors, many of them Jesuit priests, that curiosity and discernment are essential qualities for problem solving. He marveled that his Jesuit professors taught students about religions outside of Catholicism. His professors, Farley noted, wanted the students to think for themselves, rather than be told what to believe.

“Jesuits, to me, are exceptional in their sense of curiosity — around faith, around theology, around philosophies of life,” Farley said. “They don’t want us to be some Catholic robot who goes to church to see other people. They want our faith to be authentic and our connection with our religion to be a conscious choice in the face of other religious choices.”

His time on the Hilltop also reinforced the role of discernment in his life. Having good judgement, Farley said, is often informed by optimism through faith but also mistakes and miscalculations. Discernment, to Farley, requires deeply processing the events in life, and mistakes can often be a gift.

“Often the most valuable inputs to making a decision are the mistakes that you’ve made,” he said. “I think discernment is mission critical, as is being decisive and the other elements of the St. Ignatius framework for solving problems.”

One of Farley’s favorite professors was Jan Karski, a Polish World War II hero, spy and diplomat who served against Nazi Germany and provided early reports on Nazi atrocities to the Western Allies. Karski, who died in 2000 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, taught international relations at Georgetown for more than 40 years.

“I found the intensity of his life and the problem solving to be very refreshing,” Farley said. “He was one of the best problem solvers I’ve ever met.”

Run Toward Problems

Throughout Farley’s career, he’s been drawn to the hardest roles. 

“For whatever reason, whenever anyone said to me, career-wise, ‘Don’t go over there, because there’s a very high likelihood that it will not work out,’ I ran to those opportunities,” he said. “It wasn’t like I was taking an unconsidered risk. It’s just that I was always attracted to the gnarliest, most real-world problem.”

That happened at Toyota, where he spent nearly 20 years in product planning, marketing and advertising roles. He served as vice president and general manager of the company’s Lexus group and guided the successful launch of the Scion brand. He was also tapped to be the general manager of product management of Toyota Motor Europe.

“There was no template,” Farley said. “We couldn’t copy anyone, and all those experiences I had to kind of make it up by problem solving.”

Before becoming CEO at Ford, Farley was the company’s chief operating officer and he previously served as Ford’s president of new businesses, technology and strategy and the executive vice president and president of global markets, . 

“You should run towards hairy, nasty problems and not away from them,” Farley said.

He also looks for ways to volunteer his time in service of others. In Detroit, he raised $30 million as the campaign chair to develop the , a transition center for people experiencing homelessness.

In reflecting on his time at Georgetown, Farley said that the greatest gift of being on the Hilltop was meeting his wife, Lia. “She’s been the best partner I could ever have,” he said. “She inspires me and keeps me humble every day.”

Farley still keeps in contact with friends he made at Georgetown — a group of former roommates he affectionately calls “my crew.” Hang on to those relationships, Farley said.

“I imagine that as the graduating seniors look around, I wouldn’t be surprised that many of them have their own crew,” he said. “They will cherish those friendships as much or maybe more than almost any academic experience they’ve had, as they should.”

(Top image courtesy of Ford)

Three professors received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award: , and ; and two staff members received the Distinguished Staff Award: (G’11) and (M’89). 

received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award, received the Stevens Faculty Excellence Award and received the Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award. (G’91, G’95) received the Condé Nast Award.

“It’s important to recognize the great work that goes on in the ������Ƶ & Sciences in all areas,” said Dean . “We recognize the faculty for their teaching, research and service to this institution, for which we are all so grateful — especially the students, both undergrad and grad. We also recognize our staff. All of us who have been around Georgetown, around higher education institutions, know that it’s staff who are the glue in our institution and hold so much together and allow us to do the great work that we do on behalf of our students.”

Get to know the award recipients, their work at Georgetown and what makes them a proud member of the College.

Kostadin Kushlev, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Kushlev, an associate professor in and director of the , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. 

His research examines how digital technologies — especially smartphones and social media — impact well-being, fragment attention and promote or undermine social connection. His work aims to identify ways technology can be designed to support happier and healthier lives.

Arik Levinson, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Levinson, at Georgetown University and a research associate at the , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award.  

He is currently of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate and Energy Economics at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. 

Levinson’s recent projects calculate the degree to which industrialized countries have been offshoring their most polluting economic activities, and evaluate the way some industries and the U.S. government have proposed to calculate carbon emissions caused by grid-connected electricity use.

Josiah Osgood, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Osgood, a professor in , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. 

Osgood has taught at Georgetown since 2002 and served as chair of the Classics department from 2016 to 2022.  He regularly offers classes in Roman history and in Latin language and literature. For many years, he co-directed study abroad programs in which students visited archaeological sites in Greece, Turkey and Italy. 

Osgood’s research focuses on politics in ancient Rome and he has written about civil war, Roman women and Roman historical writing, among other topics. He is currently working on research about senators and their families in imperial Rome.

Colva Weissenstein (G’11), Distinguished Staff Award

Weissenstein, the program manager for , received the Distinguished Staff Award. 

This award is given to staff who have a record of extraordinary service within a department or program, and who have demonstrated selflessness as people for others, cura personalis, commitment to community in diversity and creative leadership and service in support of academic excellence.

Weissenstein holds a B.A. in English from George Mason University and an M.A. in from Georgetown. With expertise in film and media studies — particularly horror cinema and advertising — as well as university administration, Weissenstein brings both intellectual curiosity and organizational care to her work.

Weissenstein is especially proud of cultivating a vibrant, supportive community among American Studies students and faculty, where collaboration and connection are central. Through sustaining beloved program traditions, including pedagogical field trips, she has helped foster a culture defined by curiosity, creativity and playfulness. Committed to joy as a meaningful part of academic life, she works to ensure that the program remains not only rigorous, but also welcoming, dynamic and deeply human.

Dr. Mary Beth Connell (M’89), Distinguished College Service Award 

Connell, an associate dean and the director of , received the Distinguished College Service Award.

This award is given to staff who have a record of extraordinary service within the College, and who have demonstrated selflessness as people for others, cura personalis, commitment to community in diversity and creative leadership and service in support of academic excellence.

In her roles at Georgetown, Connell oversees the advising of pre-health students, chairs the Pre-Health Recommendation Committee and directs the , which is for students who have completed their undergraduate education in a non-science area and wish to change careers.  

Connell received her M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1989. She also completed a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation and practiced at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. She has served Georgetown University since 1993, initially through Georgetown’s , then on the Board of Governors, Directors and Regents. Her favorite role is guiding students on their journey to a health professions career.

Abigail Marsh, Farr Faculty Excellence Award

Marsh, a professor in the and and the co-director of the , received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award (Natural, Quantitative and Interdisciplinary Science).

This award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovative dissemination of scientific knowledge. 

Marsh received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and conducted post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Her research uses functional and structural brain imaging as well as behavioral, cognitive and pharmacological approaches and the study of special populations to answer the questions: How do we understand what others think and feel? What drives us to help other people? What prevents us from harming them? 

She is the author of 100-plus peer-reviewed publications and an award-winning trade book, . Her research has received awards that include the Cozzarelli Prize for scientific excellence and originality from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The S&R Foundation’s Kuno Award for Applied Science for the Social Good and the Richard J. Wyatt Fellowship award for translational research from NIMH. She is the co-founder of .

Dagomar Degroot, Stevens Faculty Excellence Award

, an associate professor of , received the Stevens Faculty Excellence Award (Social Science).

​​The award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovation in a social sciences field.

Degroot’s first book, The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560-1720, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and named by the Financial Times as one of the ten best history books of that year. His new book, , was published by Harvard University Press and Penguin, and is a Scientific American, New Scientist and Nautilus book of the year. He is currently editing several books on past climate change, including the forthcoming . 

He also writes, narrates and produces , an award-winning podcast, video series and website on the history of climate change. He has shared the unique perspectives of the past with policymakers, corporate leaders and journalists in many cities, from Wuhan to Washington, DC. Degroot teaches courses on such topics as existential risk, space exploration and the history of climate change. 

Charles McNelis, Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award

McNelis, a professor of who also serves as the faculty director of Graduate Liberal Studies and the interim director of the , received the Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award (Humanities).

The award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovation in the humanities.

McNelis has been a member of the faculty since 2002. He teaches Latin at all levels, as well as a range of courses on ancient Greek and Latin literature and culture. 

His research focuses on the connections between Greek and Latin literature, particularly in the genre of epic poetry. He is the author of and , co-written with . Most recently, he has published a commentary on Statius’ Achilleid, a poem which takes as its subject Achilles, the greatest Greek hero. McNelis received his undergraduate degree in Classics from Columbia University, his M.A. from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles.

Diana Glick (G’91, G’95), Condé Nast Award

Glick, a teaching professor of the , received the Condé Nast Award. 

Founded in 1966 by the Georgetown College Student Council to honor the memory of the first president of the student body, this award is given by the ������Ƶ & Sciences to faculty who have served the College with distinguished teaching, research, service and leadership.

For more than 30 years on the Hilltop, Glick has taught everything from general chemistry to inorganic and spectroscopic methods, working with both large lecture classes and small groups of majors. A passionate advocate for science education at all levels, Glick has developed courses for non-science majors and championed the integration of research throughout the undergraduate experience.

Glick earned her Ph.D. from Georgetown University wherein she developed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic techniques for polyoxometalate complexes. Since 2010, she has served as director of undergraduate studies and as faculty advisor to the student chemistry community, roles through which she has mentored countless students. Her efforts were further recognized in 2015 when she received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

She is known across campus for helping students find confidence in challenging subjects — and on occasion, even convincing them that chemistry can be fun. She continues to believe that small moments in the classroom can make a lasting difference in a student’s life.

This year, the honorary society, which was founded in 1780, elected nearly to the academy, including public figures like chef and World Central Kitchen founder , CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper, filmmaker and activist Gloria Steinem. 

Rust joined the Economics Department at Georgetown and will retire in July. He is among dozens of who have been elected to the academy, including Interim President Robert M. Groves and President Emeritus John J. DeGioia (C’79, G’95). In 2023, the academy faculty members.

“I feel very fortunate to receive the honor of being elected to the AAAS,” Rust said. “But for me, perhaps the biggest ‘award’ in my career is having the opportunity to be on the faculty at Georgetown since 2012 … I would have to ascribe a lot of the credit for my election to AAAS to all the incredible support that Georgetown has provided, from a wonderful academic community with so many inspiring students and colleagues I have been privileged to benefit from.”

Rust is well-known throughout the economics profession for his pioneering contributions to the area of structural econometrics. He has on a wide range of topics, including how Social Security and Medicare affect retirement behaviors in a world of incomplete markets and the optimal lifetime of nuclear power plants. 

In 1992, Rust was awarded the prestigious Frisch Medal, one of the top prizes in the field of economics, for the paper, “Optimal Replacement of GMC Bus Engines: An Empirical Model of Harold Zurcher,” published in 1987. He became a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1993.

Prior to joining Georgetown, Rust held positions at the University of Maryland, Yale University and the University of Wisconsin. In 2014, he was appointed the Gallagher Family Professor of Economics at Georgetown. Rust earned a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977 and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. 

The Institute for Responsible Citizenship recently announced that Cole had been accepted into the 2025 cohort of its Washington Program, which brings exceptional young men to the nation’s capital for two consecutive summers for an array of academic and professional opportunities. 

Cole, who is double majoring in government and economics with a minor in Black studies, has also been named a , which will allow him to pursue research related to capital investment in Black communities. 

“Choosing this program was a deliberate decision to prioritize my growth in settings that not only challenge but also expand my understanding of the world around me,” said Cole. “This opportunity allows me to engage with a talented group of thought leaders and change-makers, deepening my insights into how various fields intersect and influence societal progress. 

“It represents a pivotal step in my academic and professional journey, offering unparalleled opportunities to learn from and collaborate with like-minded peers. I’m hoping to develop a broader perspective and apply this expanded worldview in ways that drive meaningful change.”

Professional Development in Washington

This year, Cole is one of just 12 students, out of more than 1,000 applicants, to be selected for the Washington Program. He is the first Georgetown student to receive the honor. 

In his first summer with the program, Cole will complete an internship with Brown Advisory, an investment management and strategic advisory firm, this summer. 

“This summer at Brown Advisory, I’m looking forward to deepening my understanding of thoughtful investment strategies under the guidance of an esteemed Institute alumnus,” said Cole. “The internship aligns perfectly with my academic goals and is a crucial opportunity for me to contribute towards thoughtful investing. Additionally, the mentorship and guidance I have received from my mentor, Damien Dwin (C’97), a Georgetown alumni and the founder and CEO of Lafayette Square, have been instrumental in preparing me for this role.”

Founded in 2003, the Institute for Responsible Citizenship is dedicated to mentoring and supporting ““the nation’s best and brightest African American male college students.” The program includes high-level internships, seminars on economic and constitutional principles and networking opportunities, both within the cohort and with program alumni and leaders. 

“I created the Institute to provide some of the most talented African American male students the kind of support that many others in our society take for granted,” said William A. Keyes IV, the organization’s founder and president, in a press release. “We provide exposure to opportunities, valuable internship experiences and introductions to people who can support them in a variety of ways. We help them achieve extraordinary success for reasons that are bigger than themselves.”

Expanding the Classroom with Research

A Laidlaw Scholar, Cole will be conducting an independent research project alongside his internship responsibilities. 

Run by the in partnership with the Laidlaw Foundation, the program empowers undergraduates to complete original research in their area of study over the summer with a stipend of up to $3,900.

In his research, which will be mentored by , Cole will be able to expand on what he’s learned in the classroom, blending together insights from economics, public policy and Black studies. 

“I want to uncover the systemic barriers that have historically limited investment in these communities and to highlight the substantial, often overlooked economic potential they hold,” said Cole. “I’m trying to explore and demonstrate why Black communities are not only worth investing in but are also vital to broader economic growth and social equity.”

When Cole arrived on the Hilltop, he had no idea that he’d pursue a minor in Black studies. All that changed when he took   and ’ course Critical Southern Studies. 

“That was the one that changed it for me,” remembered Cole. “I sat in that class and had several moments of introspection. I realized that this is what I enjoy doing: I love writing, I love literature and I love reading.”

As part of the course’s design, Robinson and Horton-Stallings arranged the semester so that it would serve both as an introduction to the interdisciplinary methods of Black studies and the most pressing questions of race and identity in the South. 

“That first year seminar was a real treat for us to lead and Evan was a significant part of that,’ said Robinson, an associate professor in the . “In a room filled with sharp, curious thinkers, seeing the literal light bulbs go off over his head as he made connections across course texts was such a deep reminder of why we do what we do.” 

“He brought a strong sense of place and community empowerment to the course, and his trajectory demonstrates how much the right combination of texts, with the right colleagues, at the right time, can unlock one’s purpose and open new pathways for impact.”

The interdisciplinary nature of the course, and of Black studies, lit a fire within Cole that he’s now pursuing, both in his minor and in his research as a Laidlaw Scholar.  

“We were reading Baldwin and we were watching Atlanta and it just showed me that there are so many different pathways in academia,” said Cole. 

Studying Atlanta, the award-winning show from multi-hyphenate creator Donald Glover, helped things click for Cole.  

“I always tell my friends, and this is so corny, but cura personalis is so real,” said Cole, connecting Glover’s disparate interests with Georgetown’s care for the whole person. “I came here with a one-track mind but I started to develop all of these different parts of myself.”

“Donald Glover is so many different things — writer, producer, singer. And now I want a taste of everything and I’m just putting my foot in all these things and just trying to see what sticks. I think, eventually, what I’m doing now will lead to finding that passion.”   

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“The United Programs for Political Economy Research network, or UPPER, promotes political economy research and training through collaboration across many different political economy centers,” said , a co-founder of the organization and an economist in the ������Ƶ & Sciences.

This new partnership is enlisting the help of interested economic researchers from across the country to revitalize political economy research through informed policy briefs, a pre-doctoral fellowship program and innovative in-person programming. Already, UPPER has published two policy briefs and welcomed its first cohort of fellows. The most recent brief, which focuses on how to trace and properly disclose corporate money in politics, was published last month.

Policy for the Public Good 

UPPER’s series of policy briefs promises to compile economic research on some of the most pressing issues in politics and package the takeaways for a wide audience that includes policymakers, voters and research funders.

“Our policy briefs are targeted at bridging the gap between the policy questions of the day and the knowledge that has been accumulated by the social science research, which we think could – and should –  inform the debate on those questions,” said Bouton, a professor in the . “While the policy analysis from standard think tank white papers adds a lot of value, we sit in a position where we can bring the top researchers in the world to share their insights, in a way that is appealing to a policy audience – and we try to work hard at this particular point, of making the research accessible to a broader audience.”

Instead of focusing on communications between and for economists, UPPER aims to communicate the current state of economic research outwards, informing those with their hands on the levers of power and individual voters who voice their concerns at the ballot box.

“We hope the briefs have an impact by producing summaries of what political economy research can and, importantly, cannot say, about concrete policy questions,” said Bouton. “We feel that clearly outlining the state of the knowledge about a specific question, as well as its limits, is key to informing policy debates.”

Taking the UPPER Road

In 2019, Bouton and Filipe Campante, an economist at Johns Hopkins University, launched the DC Political Economy Center, a collaboration that brought together the Georgetown Center for Economic Research and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“Filipe and I created the DC Political Economy Center to foster research in political economy within and beyond the Washington, DC area,” explained Bouton. “Through various events, we carved out a place for interactions among political economists from the area, in academia and beyond, as well as their integration into the global network of political economists.”

The DC Political Economy Center’s flagship event is the Washington Political Economy Conference, an annual gathering that brings together top political economy scholars to the nation’s capital for two days of presentations and discussions.

“After launching, we realized that political economists at other institutions shared our objective of promoting political economy research and the field as a whole,” said Bouton. “We thus started thinking about how we could increase our impact through collaboration with other similar centers. A key objective for us was to avoid useless competition with those other initiatives and unnecessary duplication of efforts.”

Out of that collaborative spirit, UPPER was born, with Bouton and Campante coordinating with peers at Princeton and Yale.

Already, the fruits of that coordinated effort are blossoming. Last month, UPPER published a policy brief from Matilde Bombardini, an economist at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, on corporate money in politics. UPPER’s first brief, published last year, explored the impacts of voting procedures on voter turnout and participation.

In July, UPPER welcomed their first 10 pre-doctoral fellows and throughout the past year has hosted a slew of conferences, workshops and lectures to promote their work. Looking forward, the UPPER team is excited to continue growing its programs and publishing research.

“In the next few years, I believe that we will likely double the number of political economy centers that are active members of UPPER,” said Bouton. “This will allow us to increase the number of briefs and their impact. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.”

Organized by the College Academic Council, the colloquium is open to student researchers from all of the university’s schools. This year’s colloquium featured research from 22 students, including 18 from Georgetown’s ������Ƶ and Sciences. 

The breadth of research on display was vast, touching on topics as disparate as how Confucian martyrs functioned in the Joseon kingdom of Korea and how access to cell phones empowers women in rural India. 

Reclaiming a Confucian Martyr 

Gene Kim (C’23) presented her paper Jeon Bulgwan: Confucian Martyr, Confucian Victim, which came out of a class taught by , a lecturer in the . 

Bulgwan, an enslaved Korean courtesan who lived during the 16th and 17th centuries, was elevated as a martyr after her suicide. Kim’s research situates the phenomenon of Bulgwan’s martyrdom within the social, political and religious structures of Joseon, the dynastic kingdom of Korea in which she lived.  

“There was very little existing research,” Kim says. “I felt as though I was bringing a new idea to life rather than merely reorganizing old ideas.” 

Kim describes the Joseon Dynasty as highly regulated. Women, in particular, had a difficult time modulating their behavior to fit expectations. After being ordered by a different official to serve him, Bulgwan chose to end her own life rather than be unfaithful to her previous partner. The story of Bulgwan was told, in several variations, to uphold the ideals of Confucianism. 

Kim’s research extracts Bulgwan from the confinement of her martyrdom, giving her agency and seeking to understand how a woman can both be crushed by a system and exalted by it. 

“I am particularly proud of this research because it was a unique opportunity to combine my Theology major with my Korean minor,” says Kim “And I am grateful to Professors Morici and Choi for their guidance.”

A Call for Household Agency

Solveig Baylor (C’22), a double major in economics and philosophy with a minor in math, wrote her senior thesis on how access to cell phones empowers women in rural India. 

Baylor’s analysis used an existing data set to measure how access to a cell phone affected household consumption. Cell phone access in India cleaves along gender lines, reducing a woman’s ability to inform household decisions, arrange safe travel and engage with news media. Baylor’s research builds on the existing literature that establishes why, for a variety of economic and cultural reasons, women face barriers to access cell phones in rural India. Household consumption, and the decisions that influence it, records far more than a simple ledger of transactions. 

“The household is the base unit of a community,” Baylor explains. “Understanding the forces that affect its consumption outcomes can have far-reaching implications for different types of policy.”

Baylor found that households in which a woman accessed a mobile phone spent their resources differently, decreasing overall household consumption while increasing money spent on food and household finances. 

“The savings behavior and increased nutritional concern of households point to greater development in rural India,” Baylor reflects. “Mobile phones can change the horizon on many fronts: human development, poverty eradication and gender equality.”

In addition to Baylor’s award, Matthew Greer-Gentis (MSB’22) received an honorable mention and Georgetown students participated out of 55 participants.

Interdisciplinary Interests

Since her sophomore year, Baylor has been interested in applying her double major in economics and philosophy towards research. During the summer of 2022, Baylor conducted research with the Seven Pillars Institute for Global Finance and Ethics where she learned how inheritance law can be a powerful means of transferring assets for women in the developing world. 

The senior says that her coursework also helped her answer the hard questions she is attempting to answer. Advising Dean Jessica Ciani-Dausch, says that she has witnessed Baylor’s knowledge base of the two subjects deepen and grow while at Georgetown.

“It’s really exciting to see now how she is connecting those studies to advance our understanding of how policies impact women globally,” says Ciani-Dausch. “I have no doubt that she’ll continue to make great contributions in the years ahead.”

Baylor is a recipient of a Provost Distinguished Undergraduate Research Fellowship, through the Center for Research & Fellowships (CRF), which funds summer research for Georgetown’s most engaged and experienced undergraduate researchers. This fellowship enabled her to “independently design and pursue a question that would become a critical learning experience for [her] professionally and personally.” 

At least one representative from each of the four main undergraduate schools participates in the Big East Research Symposium. 

At the conference, Baylor presented research on how mandating daughters’ equal intestate inheritance rights affected different types of women’s autonomy in India. Baylor explains that the 2005 Hindu Succession Act Amendment (HSAA) required nationally that in cases where there is no will present, a fairly common circumstance in under-developed rural areas, daughters must receive an equal inheritance share as sons. 

To complete her research project, Baylor used the India Human Development Survey to create indices for women’s household, personal, and financial autonomy. Theoretically, greater access to assets would increase women’s autonomy. However, Baylor found three channels that complicate this theory: the power dynamics of extended families, cultural differences across regions and economic incentives of asset transfers for the poor. 

“I found that many regions saw increases in household and personal autonomy, but some actually saw decreases in financial autonomy,” Baylor explains. “I also found that women with a marital relationship to the male household head (wives and daughters-in-law) saw decreases in personal autonomy while a woman’s natal relationship (daughter) related to her increase in financial autonomy.” 

During the event, judges grade how clearly posters are constructed and displayed, if there is sufficient background to understand the problem or hypothesis, as well as how the presenters engage the audience. Baylor’s project was one of the best at the competition.

Baylor says that Georgetown was instrumental in her success at the Big East Symposium, as well as her overall research journey. 

“Without Georgetown’s research grants, I may not have pursued research at all,” she explains. “My first research project was supported by the Royden B. Davis Fellowship, without which I could not have afforded to do independent summer research. Last summer, I received the Provost Distinguished Undergraduate Research Fellowship through the Center for Research and Fellowships. The generous funding, faculty support, and peer community created an experience reflective of my Georgetown education.”

Martin Ravallion, Ph.D. and Edmond D. Vallini Professor of Economics, mentored Baylor while she was a student and later when she worked with his as a teaching assistant.

Shareen Joshi, who served as Baylor mentor throughout her project, began meeting with Baylor when the senior reached out after noticing so many similarities in their research interests. Baylor says that Joshi’s mentorship has been invaluable, a feeling mutually held by Joshi. 

“Solveig Baylor’s passion for research is matched by an incredible personal commitment to learning complicated research methods,” Joshi says. “She is also remarkably conscientious in thinking about the real lives of people who are impacted by the policies she studies. It was a pleasure to work with her — I learned a lot!”

Additional Honorees

Greer-Gentis, a finance major with a government minor in the McDonough School of Business, earned an honorable mention for his project “Congressional Financial Transaction and Options Analysis During the 116th Congress.”

“As a finance student hoping to pursue a job in government post-grad, it was fulfilling to apply my finance major through the lens of government work,” says Greer-Gentis. “I would say my experience within the MSB senior thesis course really helped and gave guidance and feedback for my project! As a really small senior thesis cohort, I personally felt that there was more room for collaboration, discussion and pursuing self-interests.”

Greer-Gentis, who was also a Provost Distinguished Undergraduate Research Fellow, says that he felt very supported by  his advising dean Brancaforte, Lauren Tuckley and William English, assistant professor in McDonough School of Business. 

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“I strongly believe that the College and the Beeck Center are valuable environments to cultivate my diverse interests,” says Ras-Work. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know I’m well-equipped to meet it after my time at the Beeck Center.”

Ethan Fan (C’24)

Major: Biology of Global Health and Economics

Hometown: Columbia, Maryland

What inspired you to apply to the Beeck Center?

I was inspired to apply to the Beeck Center because of its mission centered around social impact through technology. I believe the field of data has a lot of potential and can be used to help underserved communities. I am also interested in connecting technology to modernize policy work and research. 

What research are you working on while there?

I am a student analyst part of the State Chief Data Officers Network Project. For my role, I research different fundamental state open data sets, create assessment criteria for those data sets and analyze them based on those criteria. I will be researching these 11 foundational datasets highlighted in a previous Beeck publication, Open Data for Economic Recovery, for all fifty states and compiling an aggregated way to display the research I have done.

What career development skills do you hope to gain while there? How does the Beeck Center help you achieve your career goals?

I hope to learn more about what makes data so important, why governments are behind in modernizing their platforms and how I can apply data to any research I do on a daily basis. At the Beeck Center, I have learned how to access and find any level of state spatial map data or numerical datasets that are published for transparency purposes. I have also learned common skills used in Airtable and Tableau platforms. I have learned more about my interested career field of health care, its increasing costs and common issues underserved communities face regarding healthcare. 

How does this help you with your work for the Beeck Center?

The Beeck Center has been very helpful in helping guide me toward the right field of work and the impact I hope to create with my major. A part of the student analyst program involves career development and workshops. In these events, we are asked to research more about what interests us in social impact and for me it is health care. Some assignments have asked me to keep up with the news in the healthcare field, some of the major problems arising in the field and finding data that could help address those problems. I think the skills learned from these assignments will help me in any field related to my major, whether that be research, non-profit work, or healthcare insurance. 

Katie Hawkinson (C’23)

Major: History, minor in Global Medieval Studies

Hometown: Spokane, Washington

What inspired you to apply to the Beeck Center?

I applied to the Beeck Center because I am passionate about making innovative thinking accessible to the public. As a Storytelling and Editorial Content Analyst, I will get the chance to learn more about the amazing work Beeck Center researchers are doing to evoke social change while making their findings digestible and interesting for the world.

What research are you working on while there?

I have a slightly different role than other students, as I am focused on communications rather than research. That means I take the amazing research that my coworkers have done and boil it down into parts that we can present to the public. I write blog posts for our website, craft Twitter and LinkedIn posts and I am even helping with the layout and design of reports. My job is really special to me because I get to engage with all the work done here at the Beeck Center.

What career development skills do you hope to gain while there? How does the Beeck Center help you achieve your career goals?

While working on communications at the Beeck Center, I hope to learn how to be a human-centered, ethical storyteller. No matter where I end up after graduation, being a strong writer with experience in storytelling will serve me well.

How does your major help you with your work for the Beeck Center?

As a humanities major, the bulk of my coursework and assessments are writing-based. Specifically, as a historian, I find myself studying the stories of civilizations, institutions and communities, trying to make sense of how each component of society worked together to create the historical record. In a way, I’m doing something very similar here at the Beeck Center — I take these amazing, technical reports written by our phenomenal staff and try to piece together how each step of their project matters to the larger picture, as well as how we can help the general public understand the significance of this work. In both my role as a student and as an analyst, I have the opportunity to find the most important pieces of complex processes and convey them clearly to others in an effort to spread knowledge and understanding.

Zega Ras- Work (C’23)

Major: Political Economy, minor Environmental Studies

Hometown: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

What inspired you to apply to the Beeck Center?

I often find that data and technology enthusiasts overlook the importance of public policy for achieving innovation, and public policy people underrate the importance of data and technology for achieving broader societal goals. The Beeck Center lies right at the intersection of these worlds. I applied to Beeck to get involved with the emerging field of public interest technology, and I now see that the potential for innovation to address public needs including disease, food systems, poverty and inequality, and more is limitless.

What research are you working on while there?

At the Beeck Center, I work on the Data Labs project, which focuses on helping state governments leverage data for economic recovery from the pandemic. On that project I do qualitative research, identifying and sharing best practices on how states have already addressed key policy issues through data-informed decision-making. I am also starting to do quantitative work on our Chief Data Officers Network, normalizing program data and presenting it through forms of visualization. As a technical assistant, I also do smaller, issue-specific research assignments to support our program managers.

What career development skills do you hope to gain while there? How does the Beeck Center help you achieve your career goals?

I’m gaining some hard skills that involve working with data, as well as hopefully soon getting experience with some legal aspects of our work including contract-making, data sharing, and inter-organizational collaboration. I hope to also build on my teamwork skills as well as grow as a leader and communicator. The Center offers student analysts abundant mentorship opportunities with our supervisors and the Fellows, in addition to regular career development workshops that nurture skill building. I am also creating a valuable network here.

How has your major helped you with your work for the Beeck Center?

My economics major has been useful in a lot of my research pertaining to analyzing government interventions in different policy areas and some of the quantitative work I’m doing. I’m fortunate that the College has a top-tier economics department, where a lot of the courses I’ve taken have shaped my way of thinking in one way or another. I find that I’m frequently able to draw from theoretical frameworks and concepts that I’ve learned in class and apply them to the work I do now.

In my time at Georgetown, through academics, extracurriculars, and some of my work experience, I’ve developed a passion for environmental issues, especially energy systems sustainability and climate change. My work at Beeck has really piqued my interest in applications of data in the global clean energy transition, particularly in relation to energy resource data and geographic information systems. I’m curious about how high-quality data can be used with analytical methods and models to inform investment decisions and power sector planning in a way that is just and equitable.

“Many countries do not have accessible or clear information, which I think has been a result of corruption and weak institutions creating repercussions for the development of Latin America, specifically for those individuals who are most disadvantaged” she explains. “With the context of the problems that caused my Colombian family to immigrate into the United States and the large amounts of asylum seekers coming from Central America and Venezuela, the dissemination of transparent information is incredibly valuable and important.”

Diving into a Database

SIGLA’s core mission is to conceptualize, operationalize and measure key parameters of formal political and legal institutions in Latin America. When fully developed, SIGLA will store and disseminate information in English, Spanish and Portuguese, on nearly 50 political and legal institutions in 20 Latin American countries. 

Systematic and user-friendly, SIGLA was started in 2016 by Diana Kapiszewski, the current director of SIGLA, but has been primarily developed and run by Georgetown undergraduate students. The government professor says that “despite their importance, there is currently no single source for systematic, comparable information about the form and function of political and legal institutions in Latin America, but SIGLA fills this lacuna. 

“Freely available to scholars, policymakers, businesspeople and personnel from civil society organizations across the Americas and around the world, the SIGLA database democratizes access to systematic data about Latin America’s political and legal institutions,” Kapiszewski explains.

Acosta first heard about SIGLA while she was attending the Government Major Declaration Session in the spring of 2020. During that same semester, she was taking Latin American Government and Politics with Professor Kapiszewski and learned that one of the greatest political problems that Latin America has is the lack of legitimacy, strength and stability of institutions. 

“Upon hearing about the political turmoil that many Latin American countries were going through amid the pandemic, I wanted to learn more about the reasons for these issues,” Acosta says. “I had in mind the opportunity Professor McMorrow had mentioned and when Professor Kapiszewski opened the applications, I knew that I wanted to apply to be a part of the SIGLA team.”  

SIGLA’s database currently focuses on Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico with the goal of expanding research to all other Latin American countries. Along with two other team members, Acosta’s research is concentrated on the institutions of Colombia. All eight RAs meet weekly to learn about the research they are conducting. 

Kapiszewski says that she wanted SIGLA to be built by Georgetown undergraduates because “they are exceptionally good at what SIGLA needs most: careful, informed, intelligent data collection, verification and documentation; and new, outside-the-box thinking about information presentation. 

“They understand Latin American institutions, and want to learn more about what they don’t fully understand,” she continues. “They are self-starters, and also recognize the value of teamwork. Georgetown undergraduates are curious, committed and inspirational: it is a pleasure and a privilege to work with them.”  

Acosta says that some of the methodological skills developed in her Latin American Government and Politics class in writing research papers or policy papers translated to her work as an RA. She was able to approach research with “an intentional methodology and hypothesis in mind”.

“Apart from growing these skills, Professor Kapiszewski also really encouraged the class and us as RAs to speak up and ask questions,” Acosta continues. “Often during the pandemic, it was easy to turn off the camera, go on mute and stay silent for the rest of a class lecture. However, I felt that Professor Kapiszewski really values all our ideas and has really helped me to be comfortable with asking for help or expressing my thoughts.” 

More About Acosta

After she graduates, Acosta is interested in pursuing a degree in law. The junior says that many of the skills she has gained as an RA such as writing, finding evidence and research “will transfer over well to the legal field.”

Acosta also says that her experience as a student in the College has given her the flexibility to explore different areas of interest. 

“Coming from a Colombian family myself, one of the areas that I am interested in learning more about is Latin American Politics,” Acosta continues. “As a Government and Economics major, being able to contribute to the transparency of institutions and the laws in Colombia has been extremely rewarding. SIGLA has really expanded my way of thinking and approaching information and the in-depth research has also enriched many of the conversations that I have with my family back in Colombia on any political issue.”

In addition to her research with SIGLA, Acosta is also a member of the Corp Catering service and an avid distance runner for the Georgetown Running Club (GRC) where she runs up to 65 miles a week. 

She is also participating in the Capital Applied Learning Labs (The CALL). As part of this program, Acosta is interning with Immigrant Food as part of The CALL experience on top of her Research Assistantship with SIGLA.

Kapiszewski says that Acosta has been “an extraordinary asset to SIGLA.  

“She works extremely carefully and is exceptionally effective both working individually and coordinating as part of the team,” the professor continues. “Now too many times to count, she has offered astoundingly astute suggestions and observations in team meetings — cutting through layers of complexity with clear, innovative ideas that simply make one’s jaw drop.”