Our Team

Leanna Stiefel

Leanna Stiefel, Professor of Economics at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, teaches courses in multiple regression and economics of education. Her areas of expertise are school finance and education policy, applied economics and applied statistics. Some of her current and recent research projects include: costs of small high schools in New York City; effects of school organization on student achievement; racial test score gaps; and segregation, resource use and achievement of immigrant school children. She is author of Statistical Analysis for Public and Non-Profit Managers (1990) and co-author of Measuring School Performance and Efficiency: Implications for Practice and Research (2005) as well as The Measurement of Equity in School Finance (1984), and her work appears in journals and edited books. She is past president of the American Education Finance Association, past member of the policy council of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), and a current governor on the New York State Education Finance Research Consortium. She has been a consultant for organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Education Commission of the States, the New York ACLU, and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1972), her AB degree with high honors from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (1967), and holds an Advanced Professional Certificate in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business (1984).