Paula Worthington

(she/her)

Paula R. Worthington is a professional economist currently serving as Senior Policy Advisor at the Civic Federation and Lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she is affiliated with the Center for Municipal Finance. She also has an appointment as a Collaborating Scholar at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. Previously she served as faculty lead for the Master of Public Policy program at Harris and as academic director of the School’s Policy Labs program. At Harris, Worthington taught courses in state and local government, cost-benefit analysis, and transportation policy and advised students completing applied projects for public and nonprofit sector clients, receiving multiple teaching awards over the course of her career.

Worthington’s interests are in state and municipal fiscal policies, with a focus on tax policy, infrastructure, and regulatory policy. Worthington has long served in advisory capacities with public and nonprofit sector groups. She previously served as co-chair of the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Regional Planning and Investments Committee; member of the state of Illinois’s Budgeting for Results Commission; and an inaugural member of Cook County’s Independent Revenue Forecasting Commission. Worthington’s career has also included stints at the Council of Economic Advisers in Washington, D.C. and the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Chicago. She earned her A.B. in Economics from Cornell University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.