On October 16, 2025, the University of Michigan Regents named Kathryn Dominguez, Ford School associate dean for academic affairs and professor of public policy and economics, as a Distinguished University Professor. This distinction is the University’s most prestigious professorship, which recognizes senior faculty who have exceptional scholarly achievements, a national reputation for academic excellence, and a superior record of teaching, mentoring, and service.
Part of the recognition is the opportunity to name the professorship after a person of distinction in their field of research. Dominguez has selected the title of “Marina von Neumann Whitman Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Public Policy,” honoring Dr. Marina von Neumann Whitman, professor emerita of business administration and public policy. Dr. Whitman was the first woman ever appointed to the White House Council of Economic Advisors and was the highest-ranking woman in the Nixon administration. Her work shaped thinking on international trade, multinational corporations, and corporate social responsibility.
When asked why she chose to honor Dr. Whitman, Dominguez responded, “She was a pioneering economist and policy maker, and an amazingly warm and generous colleague and friend.”
Dominguez joined the University of Michigan in 1997 as an associate professor of public policy. During her 28-year tenure at the university, she has served in multiple leadership positions, including two terms as the director of the Ford School’s Joint Doctoral Program. Currently, Dominguez is serving her second term as the Ford School’s dean for academic affairs; director of the LSA Department of Economics’ honors program; and faculty advisor for the Omicron Delta Epsilon honors society.
With two books and over 50 articles in leading academic journals, Dominguez has shaped foundational aspects of American and international monetary policy. Her most recent research makes connections between international financial markets and public policy, examining central bank policy, central bank communication to the public, and currency manipulations. In 2015, her accomplishments led President Obama to nominate her for a seat on the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She is one of 22 members on the Panel of Economic Advisors at the Congressional Budget Office charged with augmenting the federal government’s understanding of the U.S. economy. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Scientific Committee for the European Systemic Risk Board, which contributes to public debate regarding risks to the EU financial system. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis.
Beyond her contributions to the field of economics, Dominguez has helped higher education evolve into a more creative, interdisciplinary institution. In 2007, she and colleague Adela Pinch (U-M professor of English and Women’s Studies) researched and developed an undergraduate first year seminar on the intersection between Jane Austen’s work and economics. The result—the only class of its kind in the country and one of only a few courses nationwide that bring the study of economics and literature together in a genuinely interdisciplinary way. Outside the classroom, she has served on the executive committee at the U-M Press, the department of economics, and the Ford School, and led numerous hiring and review committees.
Dominguez is the most recent Ford School faculty member to receive this honor. Bob Axelrod, Earl Lewis, and John Z. Ayanian, faculty by courtesy, also hold the designation of Distinguished University Professor Emeritus.
She will deliver an inaugural lecture during the academic year to formally mark the appointment.
Congratulations Kathryn Dominguez!
Read more about the award in the University Record.
