Christina Paxson


Christina Hull Paxson, professionally known as CPax, is an American economist and public health expert, currently serving as the 19th President of Brown University. Previously, she was the Hughes Rogers Professor of Economics & Public Affairs at Princeton University as well as the Dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
In March 2012 Paxson was selected as the 19th president of Brown University. She officially succeeded Ruth Simmons on July 1, 2012 and was inaugurated on October 27, 2012.

Early life and education

After spending her childhood in Forest Hills, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paxson received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1982, where she majored in Economics and minored in English and Philosophy. Originally a graduate student at Columbia University's Business School, Paxson transferred to Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, receiving her M.A. and Ph.D. in economics, in 1985 and 1987, respectively, with a focus on labor.

Career

In 2000, she founded the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton, an interdisciplinary research center based in the Woodrow Wilson School. She served as the chair of Princeton’s Economics Department in academic year 2008–09. She was also the founding director of an NIA Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging at Princeton. During her time at Princeton, Paxson also served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
Paxson's most recent research focuses on the impact of childhood health and circumstances on economic and health outcomes over the lifecourse; the impact of the AIDS crisis on children's health and education in Africa; and the long run consequences of Hurricane Katrina on the mental and physical health of vulnerable populations. Paxson has been a Senior Editor of The Future of Children, an interdisciplinary journal that works to build a bridge between cutting edge social science research and the policy community.
In 2013, Paxson wrote a New Republic op-ed, arguing for ongoing relevance of the humanities from an economist's perspective.
Paxson has also maintained numerous institutional affiliations: in addition to being a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. The previous year, she became a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and in 2019 was named deputy chair of that organization. In 2018, Paxson received an honorary doctorate from Williams College.
She has been a member of the Kol Emet congregation a Jewish Reconstructionist synagogue, committed to the growth of a spiritually and intellectually engaging Judaism.
As President of Brown University, Paxson has focused on cultivating entrepreneurship and collaboration between the students and faculty. Under her leadership, the University has also opened a new School of Public Health, launched the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, and is in connection with the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs. She has also sustained undergraduate financial aid as the fastest growing area of Brown's budget, by increasing scholarships for low income families.
In wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paxson penned a New York Times op-ed and appeared on CNN, outlining her views on the importance of reopening colleges safely in the fall of 2020. On June 4, 2020, Paxson testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, during a hearing entitled “COVID-19: Going Back to College Safely."

Selected publications