Linda A. Bell

Linda A. Bell is currently the Claire Tow Professor of Economics and Provost Emerita at Barnard College. Professor Bell previously served as Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Barnard from 2012-2024, where she oversaw the College's academic programs, leading the academic community in the creation and oversight of Barnard’s Foundations curriculum. She was also responsible for Barnard Libraries and Instructional Media, Beyond Barnard, the development of Barnard Summer Programs, the inauguration of the Summer Research Institute, and the oversight of the Milstein Academic Centers. As Provost, she was also the liaison to Columbia University on academic affairs including faculty tenure, curriculum, academic scheduling, and the College’s 4+1 Pathways programs. Previous to her tenure at Barnard, Professor Bell was the Provost and John B. Hurford Professor of Economics at Haverford College.

In her varied professional and scholarly capacities, Provost Bell has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the U.S. Department of Labor, as a senior economist in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and as a visiting faculty member at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and at Stanford University. She is an empirical economist specializing in labor markets, gender economics, and public policy; her current research focuses on the opportunities and challenges facing higher education institutions, and the necessary re-envisioning and re-articulation of mission, purview, purpose, and value of higher education institutions in contemporary society. She has served as a committee chair for the American Association of University Professors and as a board member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession of the American Economic Association. Provost Bell received her Ph.D. from Harvard and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a University Scholar.

Selected Professional Affiliations:

• Council on Foreign Relations – Permanent Member
• IZA Institute of Labor Economics – Research Fellow
• Paris Global Center, Columbia University – Faculty Advisory Committee
• Red Shoe Movement – Sages Council