Retired UMass Professor Awarded $20M Pivotal Ventures Grant
M.V. Lee Badgett. Photo: umass.edu
Source: UMass College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
M. V. Lee Badgett, Professor Emeritx of Economics and former Director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration (the School of Public Policy’s predecessor), was awarded $20 million by Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ philanthropic foundation, for the purpose of advancing women’s power on a global scale. Badgett is one of 12 international partners with whom Pivotal Ventures is working. The $20 million awarded to Badgett is part of a larger $1 billion commitment to a number of organizations and leaders made “to protect and further equality and remove the barriers that hold women back.”
Since retiring from UMass Amherst and the School of Public Policy, Professor Badgett has gone on to co-found Koppa: The LGBTI+ Economic Power Lab. Koppa consults on international LGBTI+ economic issues and seeks to create a more equitable global economy for LGBTI+ people “through knowledge, financing and connection.”
Learn more about Koppa: The LGBTI+ Economic Power Lab.
Read additional local reporting and Badgett’s award in the Daily Hampshire Gazette