Dr. Melanie Zaber
Senior Economist; Codirector,
Middle-Class Pathways Center
Professor of Policy Analysis,
RAND School of Public Policy
Dr. Melanie Zaber is a senior economist at RAND and codirector of the RAND Lowy Family Middle-Class Pathways Center. Trained as a labor economist and postsecondary education researcher, she has spent her career examining how people build economic security—from sub-baccalaureate credentials through Ph.D. programs, and from career pathways in the building trades to the workforce implications of AI. She received her Ph.D. in economics and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Melanie moved to southwestern Pennsylvania for graduate school and never looked back. Living in Pittsburgh, she has been eager to support efforts to improve the broader region’s economic security, conducting studies on southwestern Pennsylvania’s STEM workforce, West Virginia’s apprenticeship and stackable credential programs, and a tri-state (Pennsylvania-West Virginia-Ohio) consortium focused on building the energy and advanced manufacturing workforces.