Lauren Hoehn-Velasco Receives Andrew Young School 2024 Dean’s Early Career Award

ATLANTA  —  Lauren Hoehn-Velasco, an assistant professor in Georgia State University’s Department of Economics, has received the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS) 2024 Dean’s Early Career Award.

The award recognizes the accomplishments of a tenure-track AYSPS assistant professor for their outstanding success in research, scholarship, teaching and service to their department.

Hoehn-Velasco joined the Andrew Young School in 2020. Her research areas of interest are public economics and health economics, with a focus on topics like the determinants of child and maternal health, the impacts of the recent pandemic, how public health investments impact mortality, domestic violence and health inequality.

In the four years Hoehn-Velasco has been on faculty, she has had 33 journal articles published or accepted for publication, as well as a book chapter and three working papers. Her work consistently appears in top general economics, health economics and general interest journals in economics. She has also published in top multidisciplinary policy and health journals, and her work has been cited nearly 800 times.

“Dr. Hoehn-Velasco’s work is having a real impact,” said Professor Jim Marton, chair of the Economics Department.

The courses Hoehn-Velasco teaches are important to several key programs, and she receives overwhelmingly positive student evaluations. In addition to shifting her teaching to the health economics sequence in the economics Ph.D. program, she is taking over the M.A. course on the history of economic thought. She teaches the M.A. public economics course — a popular elective — as well as in the M.A.-required econometrics sequence. She has prepped online versions of all three courses to assist with the launch of the online M.A. program.

Hoehn-Velasco actively mentors students and is a member of the Committee for Female and Non-Binary Graduate Students. She has or is serving on eight dissertation committees while coauthoring research with several economics faculty, Ph.D. students and alumni. Given her work in multidisciplinary areas, she collaborates with scholars from the fields of demography, sociology, nursing and medicine.

Hoehn-Velasco has increased her service to the department over time. She coordinates the department’s seminar series and co-coordinates its summer seminar series for Ph.D. students. She served on the committee tasked with planning for the launch of the department’s online M.A. program and its faculty recruiting committee last year, which resulted in several new hires.

“Professor Hoehn-Velasco performs at an extremely high level in all aspects of her role as an assistant professor,” Marton said. “I am hopeful the recognition that comes with this prestigious award will indicate to her how much we value all she has accomplished to date.”