Samuel Barker is a Ph.D. student in the UNC-Chapel Hill Economics department with research interests focusing on education. At Carolina Demography Samuel works with North Carolina data exploring the current state of education in NC and its trends. In his role, he frequently interacts with clients like myFutureNC and provides data products for general consumption and public facing statistical analyses.

Outside of Carolina Demography, Samuel works with Jane Fruehwirth in studying the mental health of college students and pursues his own research into the role of financial aid in major choice. Previously he worked at the NBER/MIT on the health effects of dietary programs and on estimating hospital quality.

Samuel earned his MA in Economics from the University of Chicago and his BS in Mathematics from Pfeiffer University. He is a North Carolina native and lives happily with his wife who is a medical student at the UNCSOM.

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