AEASP 2025 Scholar Luwam Balihu

Luwam Balihu is a financial economics scholar and leadership advocate dedicated to empowering communities through education. As a Dean's List student at St. Catherine University, she bridges technical expertise in econometrics with hands-on leadership—serving as Economics Club President, Resident Advisor, and Peer Money Mentor. Through financial literacy workshops, research initiatives, and one-on-one mentoring for 800+ peers, Luwam transforms economic theory into tangible impact.

AEASP 2025 Scholar Leonardo Andrade

Leonardo Andrade is from Queens, NY, and Mexico City, Mexico. He is a rising Senior at Bard College, studying Economics with a secondary focus in Computer Science. At Bard, he is an Early College Opportunity scholar, and has worked closely with the Office of Equity and Inclusion as a Summer Peer Mentor and Academic Mentor for first-year students. In Economics, he is particularly interested in the intersection of data, international macroeconomics, and policymaking.

AEASP 2025 Scholar Oyindamola Akinrogbe

Mary Akinrogbe is a junior from Maryland pursuing a double degree in Economics and Mathematics (Statistics track) at the University of Maryland, College Park. Mary is currently a research assistant in the Agricultural & Resource Economics Department and has experience as a summer research assistant and a research intern in the federal government. She is particularly interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Economics, focusing on labor, education, and health economics.

AEASP 2025 Scholar Salma Abdi

Salma Abdi (she/her) is a Research Assistant at the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she conducts research on racial wealth inequality, disparity studies, and economic justice. She also serves as the Director of Federal Affairs for the Undergraduate Student Government, leading federal lobbying efforts and working directly with legislators on policies affecting students and marginalized communities. 

AEASP 2025 Scholars

AEASP 2025 Fellow Subodh Reja Regmi

Reja Regmi is a Ph.D. student in Economics at Howard University, Washington, DC. She is interested in labor and urban economics, with a focus on labor market dynamics, unemployment, and job security. She has worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Economics at Howard University. Beyond her studies, she likes to travel and explore new places and cultures.

AEASP 2025 Fellow Subodh Raj Pandey

Subodh Raj Pandey is a Ph.D. student in Economics at Howard University in Washington, DC, specializing in Labor, Urban, and Health Economics. Currently, he is working as a research fellow at the Center for Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society. His work focuses on the policy implications of involuntary commitment laws, the effects of housing wealth, and the dynamics of self-employment versus wage employment. Outside academia, he enjoys traveling, playing games, and watching movies.

AEASP 2025 Fellow Le Nguyen

Le Thi Nguyen, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Economics at Howard University, brings a distinguished academic background from Vietnam, having secured the first rank in both B.S. and M.A. degrees. With an impressive 14 years of experience in research, teaching, and writing book chapters in microeconomics and macroeconomics, her expertise lies in analyzing the impact of fiscal and monetary policies on economic growth. She extends this knowledge to the micro-level, studying customer and firm behavior and researching policies to enhance export activities in Vietnam.

AEASP 2025 Fellow Olivia Mooney

Olivia Mooney is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Economics at Howard University with a focus on health economics. She is a research assistant at the Center for an Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society as well as an economics tutor at the Academic Center for Excellence at Howard. She has three years of experience in the private sector as a cost analyst at a Federally Funded Research and Development Center. Her undergraduate degree was in economics with a minor in public health at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. 

AEASP 2025 Fellow Tewodros Gutema

Tewodros Gutema is a PhD student in Economics at Howard University in Washington, DC, specializing in Development and Labor Economics. He is currently a Graduate Fellow at the Center for Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society (e2s2) at Howard University. Tewodros has six years of experience in teaching and research at a public university, as well as in the banking sector. He holds an MSc in Economic Policy Analysis, a BSc in Statistics, and a BA in Economics from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.