Welcome!

I’m Danielle Graves Williamson, a research scholar at Stanford. I study how policies and institutions have shaped access to opportunity. In 2027, I will start as an assistant professor of economics at Williams College.

I graduated with my PhD in economics from Boston University in 2026, and was a 2025 NAED/Spencer Dissertation Fellow. You can read a write-up of my dissertation, which focused on quantifying the legacy of the all-white private schools that emerged in 20th century as part of a broader strategy to block school integration, here. My dissertation was one of three finalists for the Allans Nevins Prize in American Economic History.

I am a co-organizer of the Junior Economic History Conference. Please consider applying! The submission deadline is November 30, 2026.

I served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers 2024, where I focused on issues related to education, childcare, and health.

You can reach me at dcgw[ at ]stanford.edu or dgw1[ at ]williams.edu.