Akhila Kovvuri (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Economics. Her areas of interest are development economics, political economy, and labour economics. She is particularly interested in gender and religion, and studies how such identities interact with social norms, institutions, and the labour market. She hopes to pursue policy-relevant research with an aim to decrease disparities in access to work and public services. Prior to coming to Stanford, Akhila worked as a research analyst at Northwestern University and in the field in India and Ghana. She holds a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.