Nichols named to head La Follette school

Donald A. Nichols, a nationally known economist who has taught at UW–Madison for more than 35 years, has been named director of the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs .

Nichols, who joined the Economics Department in 1966, was appointed to a three-year term to head the school that offers masters’ degrees in national and international public affairs.

Nichols is a Connecticut native who received three degrees from Yale, including a doctorate in economics. At UW–Madison, he teaches macroeconomic theory and policy, and he has written in the areas of macroeconomic theory and policy and regional economic development. He has chaired the Economics Department twice and is also currently co-director of the university’s Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy and director of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy.

Nichols has served on the staffs of the Council of Economic Advisors to the President and the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. He was deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor (1977-79) and served as economic adviser to the governor of Wisconsin (1983-86). Nichols has received the William H. Kiekhofer Memorial Teaching Award.

Nichols is also highly respected as an economic forecaster and is a member of the Midwest Economists’ Workshop at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. Currently, he is helping to organize the third Wisconsin Economic Summit to be held in October, and is working with Gov. Scott McCallum’s “Build Wisconsin” initiative, the first comprehensive economic development planning initiatives in Wisconsin in almost 20 years.

“While we are faculty driven, as are all outstanding schools of public affairs, we are fortunate to have a faculty that is very responsive to the needs of the state of Wisconsin. With our recent expansion to the international field, La Follette now offers a full range of options for students who want to practice public policy and administration anywhere in the world,” Nichols says.

Nichols says he hopes to continue to build on the local, national and international reputation of La Follette and its more than 1,000 graduates who work in government, business, non-profit and academic settings around the world.