Susan E. Mayer, a professor in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and the College at the University of Chicago, served as dean of the Harris School from 2002 to 2009. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on the measurement of poverty, the effect of growing up in poor neighborhoods, and the effect of parental income on children's well-being. She is author of What Money Can’t Buy (Harvard University Press) and Earning and Learning (Brookings Institute Press. Her current research is on economic mobility, the effects of government expenditures on economic growth, and the role of technology in educational outcomes.. Mayer is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine Board on Children, Youth and Families and the Board of Advisors for the Pew Charitable Trust Economic Mobility Project, She has been a member of the Board of Directors of Chapin Hall Center for Children and the General Accounting Office Educators' Advisory Panel. She has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on National Statistics Panel to Review U.S. Department of Agriculture's Measurement of Food Insecurity and Hunger.. Mayer is the past director and deputy director of the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research. She has served as an associate editor for the American Journal of Sociology. She has an honorary doctor of law from Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois.