Stefanie Haeffele is a Senior Research Fellow and the Senior Program and Operations Director of Academic & Student Programs at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where she works on a team aimed to recruit, train, and support graduate students pursuing careers in academia, government, and policy. She is also a Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. Stefanie received her PhD in economics at George Mason University in 2016. She is also an alum of the Mercatus Center MA Fellowship program. After receiving an MA in economics at George Mason University in 2010, she completed a Presidential Management Fellowship where she worked in emergency and disaster operations at both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and then the US Forest Service. She earned a BBA in economics and in finance from the University of North Alabama in 2007. Her work has examined post-disaster community recovery as well as the political economy of nonprofit organizations, specifically focusing on organizations that attempt to provide affordable housing to the poor.