Nathaniel Burke

2024-2025 Obama Foundation USA Leader

Headshot of Nathaniel Burke, 2024-2025 Obama Foundation USA Leader

Assistant Professor of Economics, West Virginia University

Morgantown, West Virginia

Nathaniel Burke is an assistant professor of economics at West Virginia University. His early research uncovered that people sacrifice self-promotion to better their respective communities. He took this one step further by founding the university’s Behavioral Economics and Situational Testing Lab to expand his research and apply it across several states. Nathanial oversees a team of primarily first-generation doctoral students and focuses on both educational accessibility and understanding and leveraging group identity dynamics. He has mentored hundreds of students who were not otherwise considering college through the application and acceptance processes. Before joining academia, Nathaniel served honorably in the U.S. Army.

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