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Deborah Levison
“In my teaching, I try to communicate to my students the joy in doing high quality research. They themselves are my secret vice. If I were not strict with myself, I would spend all my time with students and for students.”

Deborah Levison turned a dreaded course—statistics—into such a great experience that students in the college named her Teacher of the Year in 1999 and Core Teacher of the Year for three years in a row. From economics majors to those who haven’t taken math since high school, Levison “wins them over,” says a former dean. “She does this with a great deal of respect for the students and the difficulties they face.”

A distinguished economist, Levison is a leading scholar in the neglected area of household economics whose work on child labor and schooling has set a world standard in the field. “Her fresh approach to the study of economic development is breathing new life into the profession and providing valuable insights for students and policymakers alike,” says a former student.

Levison’s accomplishments include pioneering a feminist economics course, successful at the Humphrey Institute and beyond; playing a key role in the three-year Gender in the Middle East project; providing indispensable support to the graduate minor in population studies; and giving regular lectures on population topics for courses in conservation biology, natural resources, and applied economics for the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change.

Levison has advised more than 150 students in 13 years, coauthoring an astonishing number of papers—many award-winning—with students in the Humphrey Institute and many other departments.