Biography
Patrick Button serves as the inaugural Executive Director of The Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science. Button has been with the initiative since its beginnings, serving as the chair of a subcommittee focused on how to engage and support undergraduate students with data education.
Button concurrently serves as an Associate Professor of Economics at Tulane, and his research focuses on discrimination in the scope of age and disability, expanding to sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and ethnicity. Interested in teaching data literacy, Button integrates data analysis in his courses on Labor Economics, Economics of Discrimination, and Econometrics.
Their research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Aging, the Sloan Foundation, the Social Security Administration, the Haynes Foundation, and the Borchard Center for Law and Aging, among others. Button is currently researching sexual orientation and race discrimination in access to mortgage loans, and gender identity, race, ethnicity, and health insurance status discrimination in access to mental health care appointments. See Button’s personal website for more information about their research.
Button received their Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, with honors, from the University of Regina. They went on to receive their Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Toronto and their Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Irvine.
Through their work at CAIDS Button looks forward to advancing Tulane’s equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts, ensuring that the program will be inclusive of underrepresented groups. They are dedicated to supporting faculty and students in their journey to improve data literacy, analysis, and management. Button also looks forward to continuing Tulane’s tradition of integrating research and education with the community.
