María Padilla-Romo is an associate professor of economics in the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee. She is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a research fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA@LISER). Her research interests include labor economics, development economics and economics of education. Padilla-Romo’s research explores how policy design may reduce inequality and improve the well-being of vulnerable populations. Her recent and ongoing work focuses on evaluating the consequences of violence and education policies on labor, health, and education outcomes in the short and long run.