DEI In Practice

DEI In Practice

My commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) extends beyond philosophy and into my professional, academic, and institutional engagement. Across mentorship, recruitment, teaching, service, and research, I have sought to contribute to a more inclusive economics profession and to support scholars and communities that have historically been underrepresented within the field.

Mentorship and Community Building

During graduate school, I helped create and sustain support networks for women navigating a male-dominated department and profession. I initially organized an informal group chat for graduate students who identify as women, creating a space for students to share experiences, exchange resources, celebrate accomplishments, and support one another through the challenges of graduate education.

Building on these efforts, I formed and chaired a committee during the 2023–2024 academic year to formally launch Women in APEC within the University of Minnesota’s Applied Economics department. The organization was designed to foster community, mentorship, professional development, and gender inclusivity within the department while providing programming and resources open to individuals of all gender identities.

More recently, I participated as a panelist for a Sadie Collective job market webinar, where I shared insights and guidance with students and early-career economists navigating the economics job market. I view mentorship and transparency around professional development as important ways to help reduce informational and institutional barriers within the field.

Recruitment, Service, and Institutional Engagement

I have also sought opportunities to contribute to equity and representation through institutional service and recruitment efforts.

As a graduate student, I served on a faculty search committee despite the position being outside my primary research area. In that role, I worked to encourage broader candidate outreach and advocated for careful consideration of diversity statements and institutional contributions when evaluating similarly qualified candidates. I also shared the position opportunity through The Sadie Collective network to help expand visibility among qualified Black women economists.

Before returning to graduate school, I represented my employer at a career fair for HBCU students in Washington, D.C., where I helped recruit Black undergraduate students to pursue opportunities within the organization.

In 2026, I was elected to serve on the Executive Board of the National Economics Association (NEA), an organization originally founded in 1969 as the Caucus of Black Economists to promote the professional advancement of underrepresented economists and support research addressing issues affecting historically marginalized communities. Over time, the NEA has played an important role in expanding representation within the economics profession, supporting mentorship and pipeline initiatives, and advancing scholarship on racial inequality and stratification economics. Through my service on the Board, I hope to continue contributing to mentorship, institutional engagement, and broader participation within economics while supporting research that expands how the discipline studies inequality and economic justice.

Additional information about the National Economics Association, including its mission and history, can be found on the NEA website: https://neaecon.org/

I have also served on grant review committees at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, where I advocated for strong, policy-relevant research proposals addressing underserved communities and for equitable consideration of qualified scholars from underrepresented backgrounds. These experiences reinforced my belief that inclusion within economics is shaped not only through recruitment, but also through the evaluation, support, and visibility of research itself.

Teaching, Scholarship, and Research

My engagement with DEI also shapes how I approach scholarship and economic inquiry.

Throughout graduate school, I actively participated in discussions surrounding race, inequality, and representation within economics coursework and academic spaces. In one instance, I created and presented an introductory presentation on Stratification Economics within a Labor Economics course after recognizing that structural perspectives on inequality were largely absent from discussions of discrimination theory. Experiences collaborating with peers from a wide range of backgrounds, particularly international students, also increased my awareness of the institutional and cultural barriers many students navigate within graduate education.

My broader research agenda focuses on understanding the structural causes and consequences of inequality, particularly racial inequality within the United States. Much of my work examines how institutions, policies, and historical systems contribute to disparities in education, labor market outcomes, and economic opportunity.

In addition, I have begun ongoing work to formalize a microeconomic framework for Stratification Economics. I view this effort as an opportunity to help broaden the range of theoretical and empirical approaches used to study inequality within economics and to contribute to bringing research on stratification, structural inequality, and marginalized communities into the highest levels of academic and policy discourse.

Please visit the following page to read further on Monique's continued DEI engagement:

Continuing Engagement with DEI

Back to DEI Statement page

Page Last Updated: May 2026