The American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE) is pleased to recognize Dr. Adriana Kugler, Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Georgetown University, as the recipient of the 2025 ASHE Academic Achievement Award. The award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to economic research in line with the goals of ASHE.
Dr. Kugler earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997 and her Joint BA in Economics and Political Science with First Class Honors from McGill University in Canada in 1991. She is a Research Associate of the NBER, and Research Fellow of the CEPR and the Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality. She has devoted her career to researching the impacts of labor market and trade policies on inequities in employment and earnings, including on Latino workers. Her work also has examined the impacts of immigration on the economy as well as the assimilation of immigrants in terms of health and education. Dr. Kugler has published in top general and specialized journals and has been cited broadly in the academic literature and in the media. Her contributions on the impact of policies and regulations was recognized with the 2007 John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. In 2010, one of her papers garnered the First Prize for Best Contribution in the area of “Globalization, Regulations and Development” from the Global Development Network. Dr. Kugler has served in three top level policy roles (two of them Senate confirmed). She was the first Hispanic to serve as Governor of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve; the first Hispanic to serve as the U.S. Executive Director at the World Bank, and the first Hispanic to serve as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. Dr. Kugler received the Chase Award for her leadership and contributions to the Multilateral Development Banks’ Evolution awarded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She was also recently recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Women In U.S. Finance by Barrons for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025, as well as one of the top 500 most influential people of Latin America in 2023 by Bloomberg Linea. Dr. Kugler has also held leadership roles in academia including as Vice-Provost for Faculty at Georgetown and as Chair and Chair-elect of the Business and Economics Section of the American Statistical Association in 2019 and 2020.