Alexandra (Sasha) Killewald will be the next director of the Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics at the University of Michigan, effective July 1.
Killewald is a U-M alumna and is being recommended as a professor of sociology in LSA and the inaugural Robert F. Schoeni Professor at the Institute for Social Research, pending approval by the Board of Regents.
By serving as a tool to spark collaborative and mold-breaking scholarship, the Robert F. Schoeni Research Professorship will support research related to Schoeni’s passions, such as economics, population studies, demography, health and aging, survey methodology and public policy.
Killewald previously was a professor of sociology at Harvard University and will succeed founding director Fabian Pfeffer, who on Oct. 1 will become professor of sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany.
“I am honored to be named the next director of the Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics. Wealth inequality in the United States is extreme, but it’s rare to have a research center focused on its study,” Killewald said.
“CID brings wealth inequality scholars together in a critical mass to learn from each other and advance research in ways that are only possible in collaboration. Under Fabian’s leadership, CID has established a strong commitment to mentorship and intellectual community. I share these values and look forward to continuing to grow and develop the CID community.”
MORE INFORMATION
Killewald studies intersecting issues of social inequality in the United States, with an emphasis on the relationships among work, family and money. Her research includes the impact of gender on work and family, analyzing how marriage and parenthood affect wages, employment patterns of mothers and what economic factors impact divorce. She also analyzes how wealth inequality persists across generations, and the intergenerational racial wealth gap.
“Sasha is the ideal next leader of CID. Her path-breaking work on social inequality and wealth as well as her great commitment to mentoring junior scholars align perfectly with CID’s mission,” Pfeffer said.
“I have no doubt that under her leadership CID will continue to flourish and serve as one of the nation’s leading organizations for basic research on social inequality and the training of the next generation of inequality scholars.”
Killewald received her Ph.D. in public policy and sociology from U-M in 2011. Prior to her appointment at Harvard, she was a researcher at Mathematica.
Her research has been published in journals including American Sociological Review, Demography, Social Forces and the Journal of Marriage and Family. She received the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility and has received article awards from the ASA Section on Family and the Section on Sociology of Population.
Pfeffer will maintain a partial appointment at ISR to continue to lead the Wealth and Mobility Study.
