Post by Nishith Prakash

Honored to share that I have been elected to the Board of Director of the newly founded International Development Economics Association (IDEA). This milestone carries special meaning for me because my involvement with IDEA goes back to the very beginning — I along with so many dedicated development economists (full list: https://lnkd.in/e6dhZF4U) was part of the Founding Board that helped bring this organization into existence. Moving from Founding Board Member to elected Board of Director feels like a full-circle moment, and it deepens my commitment to making IDEA everything we envisioned it could be. A special congratulations to Dean Yang (University of Michigan) on being elected as IDEA's inaugural President. Dean was the driving force behind IDEA's founding, and there could be no better person to lead our field's first truly global professional home. The founding idea was simple but urgent: development economics needed a global home — one that bridges geographic divides, reduces access barriers, and supports development economists wherever they work, not just in OECD countries, but in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and beyond. As an elected Board member, I am eager to help translate that vision into concrete action: an open-access working paper series, career pipelines that reach scholars early, mentoring across career stages, and an annual conference that rotates to where development actually happens. If you work in development economics — or aspire to — I hope you will join us. Learn more and get involved at https://lnkd.in/eY676mra. #DevelopmentEconomics #IDEA #EconomicsForAll #GlobalDevelopment