Yale SOM Dean Kerwin Charles Named to International Rescue Committee Board of Directors

The International Rescue Committee, which works in more than 40 countries to help people affected by humanitarian crises, announced on March 31 that Kerwin K. Charles, Dean of Indra K. Nooyi and Professor Frederic D. Wolfe d in Economics, Politics, and Management at Yale SOM, joined its board of trustees. As a member of the Board of Directors, Charles will help ensure the success of the organization by providing governance, guidance and fiscal oversight.

The IRC does vital work to help restore the health, safety, education, economic well-being and power of people affected by conflict or disaster, including in Ukraine and Afghanistan. David Miliband, President and CEO of the IRC, said in the announcement, “Bold leadership is needed to address the scale of humanitarian crises around the world. The IRC is led by a board of volunteers to pursue our mission of helping people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.

Charles is a prominent economist who has studied and published on topics such as income and wealth inequality, conspicuous consumption, racial and gender discrimination in the labor market, the intergenerational transmission of economic status, and adjustment. workers and families to job loss and health shocks. He is currently vice president of the American Economics Association, vice president of NORC at the University of Chicago, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and an elected member of the Society of Labor Economics.

Charles said, “I am honored to join the board of an organization that brings a nuanced and humane approach to the recovery and prosperity of conflict and disaster survivors. In particular, I am honored to bring my own expertise in economics and inequality to IRC’s efforts to ensure the economic well-being and power of individuals and families during and long after crises.