Hester is a post-doctoral economist based at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. She is supporting research on a range of health behaviours and outcomes in ARC EoE’s Prevention and Early Detection and Measurement in Health and Social Care themes, with a particular focus on food inequalities among school-aged children.
Hester will shortly complete her PhD in Economics at the University of Essex and, prior to this, completed an Ed.M. in International Education Policy at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is experienced in using large datasets and quasi-experimental methods to infer causal relationships and has a particular interest in the drivers of inequalities in outcomes for children and young people. Prior to her Ed.M and PhD, Hester was a secondary school maths teacher for five years, initially training through the Teach First Leadership Development Programme. Hester also delivers policy and economics training to UK government departments as an Associate Tutor with EML Learning, and is a Subject Matter Expert for the Teach First Policy Fellowship.
Contact: h.burn@essex.ac.uk