Hello! I am Dr. Nishank Varshney, and I am currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Child Development at the Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC-MMI) in Omaha, US.

I was born in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh (India), and completed my schooling at Col. Brown School, Dehradun (Uttarakhand). I pursued a dual degree in B.E. (Hons.) Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering, and M.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani. In my final year of undergraduate studies, an internship with the Association for Democratic Reforms on decriminalization of Indian politics, and a master’s thesis on the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, got me interested in the field of public policy.

After briefly working as a business analyst with Dell International Services, Bengaluru for eight months, I returned to work full-time as a research associate at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. There, I worked on the implementation and evaluation of the RTE Act in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. I was selected as one of the four National winners of Telenor Youth Forum 2015, and was selected as one of the ‘30 under 30 leaders’ by BITS Alumni Association under the category of ‘Community Service & Social Entrepreneurship.’

In 2016, I joined the Humphrey School, University of Minnesota (UMN), US, to pursue a master’s degree in public policy and subsequently obtained a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from 2018-2023. At UMN, I worked at the Human Capital Research Collaborative (HCRC) with Prof. Judy Temple and Prof. Arthur Reynolds on interventions in Early Childhood Education. My other research is in the field of Program Evaluation and Social Impact Investing.

I served as a member of the Student Activities Committee of the Association for Public Policy & Management (APPAM), and am currently a member of the Prevention Science journal editorial board as part of their early career reviewer program. I also served as the Chief Financial Officer (pro-bono) of BITSAA International Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit from 2020-23, and am currently a member of the Board of Trustees.

You can find more details of my Research, Teaching, and Community Service in the respective tabs of the website.