Lee E. Ohanian Named Giles O'Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy
The School of Public Policy is honored to welcome acclaimed economist Lee Ohanaian as the new Giles O'Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor. Ohanain serves as the distinguished professor of economics and director of the Ettinger Family Program in macroeconomic research at University of California, Los Angeles, where he has taught since 1999. He is also an adjunct senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Ohanian’s extensive scholarship on the topics of economic growth, labor policy, and market crises will bring an unmatched depth to today’s California economic issues, sharing fresh ideas with graduate policy students in the fall course, “California Policy: Problems and Opportunities for Reform.”
"I am delighted to join Pepperdine as the Giles-O'Malley Visiting Professor of Public Policy,” said Ohanian. “I look forward to bringing new perspectives on California's current economic policies, and sharing ideas with the Pepperdine students and community on how tested reforms to these policies can improve our quality of life, increase housing affordability, reduce homelessness, and retain the companies and workers who have been moving to other states," said Ohanian.
Ohanian is the second person to hold the Giles O’Malley title, following Victor Davis Hanson, who served as the inaugural Giles O'Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor from Fall 2022 to Spring 2025. Hanson continues his involvement with the School of Public Policy as the Giles-O’Malley senior fellow.
With a focus on applying economic theory to make policy impact, Ohanian has advised many governing bodies, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Federal Reserve Banks, foreign central banks, and the National Science Foundation. He has also been an economic adviser to gubernatorial and presidential political campaigns and has testified on several economic public policy issues to the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, and the California State Legislative Assembly.
“I could not be more thrilled to have Lee step into this endowed professorship at the policy school,” said Pete Peterson (MPP '07), dean of the School of Public Policy. “While we send our graduates to serve around the country and world, we remain committed to preparing leaders for California. Lee’s respected scholarship on California policy will benefit our students greatly, and reflects Terry Giles’ (JD ’74) and Kalli O'Malley’s original vision for this endowment in fostering innovative solutions to America’s greatest needs.”
His research, which focuses on economic upheaval, has been published in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals and has been discussed in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Economist.
Ohanian received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Rochester and has been a visiting faculty member at the Stockholm School of Economics, the University of Southern California, and Arizona State University. Additionally, he has presented keynote talks throughout the country and across the globe.