The Charles H. Levine Memorial Fund and Lecture in Public Administration and Policy honors the life, scholarly contributions, and public service of one of the most respected public management scholars in these fields, and the first Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Administration in the School of Public Affairs (SPA) at American University. The Annual Charles H. Levine Memorial Lecture and DPAP Awards Night includes the induction ceremony for membership in the American University Chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha, the national honor society for public affairs and administration. Click here to find more information about Pi Alpha Alpha.
Read the Appreciation from 2010

This year's Levine Lecture will be delivered by Seema Jayachandran. The event will occur on May 1, 2026.

Seema Jayachandran is a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Her research focuses on environmental conservation, gender equality, and other microeconomic topics in developing countries.

She serves on the board of directors of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and leads J-PAL's gender sector. She is also co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research's program in Development Economics and co-editor of American Economic Review: Insights. In addition, she serves on CARE's board of directors.

Prior to joining Princeton, she was a faculty member at Northwestern University and Stanford University. She earned a PhD in economics from Harvard University, a master's degree in physics and philosophy from the University of Oxford where she was a Marshall Scholar, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT.