Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University faculty member for two decades, has been selected as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Her appointment is effective Sept. 1.
Rouse, scholar of the economics of education, is the founding director of the Princeton Education Research Section and a member of the National Academy of Education. She is a senior editor of The Future of Children, a policy journal published by the Wilson School and the Brookings Institution, and serves on the editorial board of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
From 2009 to 2011, Rouse served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, a three-member panel that provides the president with analysis and advice on a wide range of domestic and international economic policy issues.
”It is a great pleasure to announce the appointment of Cecilia Rouse as the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School,” said Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman. “Her scholarly distinction in the fields of labor economics and education policy, coupled with her extensive experience in Washington, epitomize the best of the school’s tradition of applying rigorous social science research to inform public policy. She is also highly regarded as a dedicated teacher and mentor to her students. I look forward to working with her as she builds upon the great strengths of the school.”
Ms. Rouse said she was honored to be selected as the school’s next dean.
”I am delighted to be offered this opportunity to serve as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, where I have very happily taught and conducted research for the past 20 years, and to build on the exceptional leadership of my predecessors,” she said. “My goal will be to elevate even further the school’s stature and impact in the policy arena it should be the go-to place for anyone interested in dynamic, insightful, timely domestic and international policy analysis and dialog, and where a diverse set of undergraduate and graduate students are trained to become the policy leaders of the future.”
Ms. Rouse joined the Princeton faculty in 1992 after earning her doctorate in economics from Harvard University.
Ms. Rouse will succeed Christina Paxson, who resigned in June after three years as dean of the Wilson School to become president of Brown University. Anne Case, the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, has been serving as interim dean.

