On July 1, Professor Andrew Sweeting became the Chair of the Economics Department, replacing Professor Judith Hellerstein, who acted as chair since 2019. 

“Andrew is going to be great; he’s an excellent scholar and researcher, teacher and Ph.D. advisor, and all of those things help to make an effective chair,” Hellerstein said. “In addition to taking numerous leadership roles in the college, Andrew has also worked at the Federal Trade Commission as the Director of the Bureau of Economics, and has been at other really excellent economics departments.” 

Professor Sweeting is determined to preserve UMD’s role as a leading Economics Department.

“What I like about UMD’s department is that there is a strong commitment to being a full-service, broad economics department that is covering a full range of topics that economists are interested in, from econometrics and economy theory to applied fields such as trade, education and policy-relevant macroeconomics,” he said. “There are lots of departments similarly ranked to UMD that are much more narrowly focused, and I think our breadth is a strength, particularly with our proximity to policymakers in Washington, D.C. Breadth and policy focus bring real benefits to students.”

Sweeting said his primary focus as chair will be building on recent success in hiring excellent junior faculty, continuing to invest in existing programs and initiatives, such as the Promoting and Advancing Diversity in Economics (PADE) program, keeping the department’s Ph.D. program competitive and extending student-alumni engagement which can particularly benefit undergraduates who are trying to understand different career paths. 

Full article by Rachael Grahame originally appeared on the BSOS Homepage. Photo by Tom Bacho.