Steven Hemelt is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hemelt is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), a Fellow in the CESifo Research Network, and a Senior Researcher at the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). He previously served as an Associate Editor of Education Finance and Policy and a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP).

Hemelt’s primary fields of interest are the economics of education, education policy, labor economics, and program evaluation. His current research investigates policy-malleable factors that shape students’ trajectories, especially at points of transition—such as from high school to college—and during periods of consequential investment in the skills and opportunities necessary to secure strong footing in adulthood (e.g., postsecondary study). This work aims to better understand how policies and programs can promote positive economic, educational, and social outcomes for students, as well as reduce sociodemographic disparities in such outcomes. Hemelt’s research has appeared in public policy, economics, and education journals including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Labor Economics, Economics of Education Review, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. His research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Spencer, Smith Richardson, William T. Grant, and Russell Sage foundations.

Hemelt teaches courses on research design, causal inference, and quantitative analysis. Before joining the faculty at UNC, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan and an Assistant Professor at Cornell College. Prior to graduate school, he was a high school teacher in Maryland. Hemelt holds bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Spanish, a master’s degree in Economic Policy Analysis, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).