Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe (born 1966) is an American economist who is the founder and current president of the Women's Institute for Science, Equity, and Race (WISER). She is a feminist economist who has been a faculty member at an extensive list of colleges and universities and served as president of the

National Economic Association The National Economic Association (NEA) is a learned society established in 1969, focused on initiatives in the field of economics. The purposes of the Association are "to promote the professional lives of minorities within the profession. In a ...

from 2017 to 2018.

Early life and education

Sharpe was born in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and moved with her parents to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

at a young age. She attended

Highland Springs High School Highland Springs High School is a public high school located in the East End of Henrico County, Virginia. It was one of the first high schools established in the Greater Richmond Region. Replacement school After 70 years in its Oak Avenue fa ...

. Sharpe studied

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

North Carolina Wesleyan College North Carolina Wesleyan University (NCWU) is a private Methodist university in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It was founded in 1956. North Carolina Wesleyan offers courses at its main Rocky Mount campus, as well as satellite locations in Brunswick ...

and

Clark Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded on September19, 1865, as Atlanta University, it was the first HBCU in the South ...

and was a

graduate student Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have ...

operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. She completed her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

at the

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California, United States. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium which includes five undergraduate and two grad ...

in 1998 under the guidance of

Cecilia Conrad Cecilia Ann Conrad (born 4 January 1955) is the CEO oLever for Change emeritus professor of economics at Pomona College, and a senior advisor to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She formerly served as the Associate Dean of Acad ...

. Her graduate committee consisted of Llewellyn Miller, John Angus, and Gary Smith. Burkle building

Career

Sharpe has taught at

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

Bennett College Bennett College is a private university, private historically black colleges and universities, historically black liberal arts college, liberal arts Women's colleges in the Southern United States, college for women in Greensboro, North Carolin ...

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, and the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

. She chaired the Department of Business and Economics at

from 2009 to 2012. From 2008 - 2014, she was associate director of the Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics (DITE), which she co-founded. In 2012, she left her tenured position at

. Sharpe founded the Women's Institute for Science, Equity, and Race (WISER) on

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...

in 2016.

WISER Wiser may refer to: * Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER) is a system to assist first responders in identification of hazardous materials during a response. The system ...

is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

501(c)3 A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

research institute specifically devoted to the study of Asian,

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

, and

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

. In particular, Sharpe advocates for the disaggregation of data to examine outcomes separately for

in each group. Sharpe also served as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the

from 2017 to 2018 and holds a position on the

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ...

of the

International Association for Feminist Economics The International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) is a non-profit international association dedicated to raising awareness and inquiry of feminist economics. It has some eight hundred members in over 90 countries. The association publis ...

. She is an

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

for The Review of Black Political Economy.

Selected works

* Coleman, Major G., William A. Darity Jr, and Rhonda V. Sharpe. "The Moral Hazard of Discrimination Reports." American Journal of Economics and Sociology 67, no. 2 (2008): 149–175. * Conrad, Cecilia A., and Rhonda V. Sharpe. "The impact of the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) on university and professional school admissions and the implications for the California economy." The Review of Black Political Economy 25, no. 1 (1996): 13–59. * Zhang, Li, Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe, Shi Li, and William A. Darity Jr. "Wage differentials between urban and rural-urban migrant workers in China." China Economic Review 41 (2016): 222–233. * Sharpe, Rhonda Vonshay, and Omari H. Swinton. "Beyond anecdotes: A quantitative examination of Black women in academe." The Review of Black Political Economy 39, no. 3 (2012): 341–352. * Blalock, Sacha D., and Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe. "You go girl!: Trends in educational attainment of Black women." In Black female undergraduates on campus: Successes and challenges. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2012. * Sharpe, Rhonda Vonshay. "We've Built the Pipeline: What's the Problem and What's Next?"https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5524 CSWEP News, 2017 Issue II

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Rhonda Vonshay African-American economists American women economists North Carolina Wesleyan University alumni Living people American labor economists Clark Atlanta University alumni Claremont Graduate University alumni 1966 births Presidents of the National Economic Association 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women Academics from New York City Economists from New York (state)