Rajeev Darolia, PhD is the Wendell H. Ford Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Kentucky.
He previously served as Chief Economist and a Senior Advisor at the US Department of Education. Darolia is also a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and a Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. He routinely advises federal, state, and local policymakers, as well as private and nonprofit organizations on regulatory, policy, and financial topics.
Professor Darolia teaches classes in causal research methods and program evaluation. His research interests include questions about how public policy affects postsecondary educational decisions and outcomes and more broadly, economic mobility and financial security. He serves as a Co-Editor for the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Prior to joining the faculty at UK, Dr. Darolia was on the faculty at the University of Missouri and served as the Director of Research for the Institute of Public Policy. In his professional life before academia, he worked as an economist and financial analyst in Washington, DC and Silicon Valley.
Dr. Darolia received a PhD in Public Policy from George Washington University where he was recognized with the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Education Finance and Policy. He also holds a master’s degree in economics and a bachelor’s degree in finance.
When not inverting matrices, Professor Darolia is probably sous cheffing for his 8- and 10-year old pâtissiers.