http://www.dol.gov/_sec/aboutosec/bio-kugler.htm
Adriana Debora Kugler is a Colombian-American economist. She is the U.S. executive director at the World Bank, nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate last April. She is a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and is currently on leave from her tenured position at Georgetown. She served as the Chief Economist to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis from September 6, 2011, to January 4, 2013.
Adriana Kugler received her Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University in 1991, graduating with first class joint honors in economics and political science. In 1997, she was awarded her Ph.D. by the University of California at Berkeley; her advisors were Nobel laureate George Akerlof, Nada Eissa, and David K. Levine.
Dr. Adriana Kugler was Vice-Provost for Faculty for Georgetown from 2013-2016 and is currently a full professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. She was founder and co-director of the International Summer Institute on Policy Evaluation between 2010-2013. She served as chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor between 2011 and 2013, where she worked actively on developing policies and proposals on unemployment insurance, training programs, retirement benefits, overtime pay and minimum wages, immigration, disability insurance and occupational safety regulations. Prior to coming to Georgetown, she was a full and associate professor at the economics departments at the University of Houston and at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
Kugler is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Labor Studies program and a research fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London, the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) in London, and the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Kugler has served on the editorial boards of the Industrial and Labor Relations Review, The Journal of Labor and Development, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Labour Economics, Applied Economics Quarterly and Economia.
On August 4, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Kugler to be the U.S Executive Director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Her initial nomination was withdrawn by President Biden on September 20, 2021, because of a typo in her name and she was renominated that same day.
President Biden renominated her on January 4, 2022, to be considered under the new session of Congress. Kugler was favorably reported by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on December 15, 2021, and again on March 8, 2022. The entire Senate confirmed her nomination by voice vote on April 7, 2022.
Biden nominated Kugler to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in May 2023.
Kugler continues to research and work with policies that help stimulate youth employment, as well as observe the effect varieties of policies have on worker mobility and job quality. Her research includes labor markets and policy evaluation in developed and developing countries. Her work also includes contributions on the role of public policies (including payroll taxes, employment protections, occupational licensing, and unemployment insurance), unemployment, and immigration.
Kugler was the 2007 recipient of the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association, in recognition of her research contributions to the field of labor and industrial relations.
In 2010, one of her papers, “Trade Reforms and Market Selection: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Colombia” won first prize for Best Contribution in the area of “Globalization, Regulations and Development" from the Global Development Network.
She has been the recipient of numerous research grants for studies in areas that include the role of public policies, unemployment, and immigration on labor markets and policy evaluation in developed and developing countries.
