Brookings Mountain West, a collaboration between UNLV and the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, has announced its roster of visiting scholars for the spring 2026 semester. These experts will focus on a variety of important and timely public policy topics, including the global middle class, taxation and democracy in the United States, drug and illicit economies, Native American communities, and financial regulatory reform.
Each academic year, visiting scholars from the Brookings Institution engage with UNLV students and faculty in classroom and research settings, as well as with community leaders and decision-makers to offer their policy expertise. Select scholars will also offer free lectures to be open to the public.
Members of the UNLV community are invited to request classroom presentations, one-on-one meetings, workshops, or department-specific gatherings with any of our visiting scholars by filling out this online form. Details about public events will be updated on the Brookings Mountain West Upcoming Lectures webpage in early 2026.
February 9-12: Homi Kharas
Homi Kharas is a Brookings senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development, housed in the Global Economy and Development program. He studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, including aid to poor countries, the emergence of the middle class, and global governance and the G20. Kharas previously served at the World Bank for 26 years, including as Chief Economist for the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific region and Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Finance and Private Sector Development.
March 2-5: Vanessa Williamson
Vanessa Williamson is a Brookings senior fellow in Governance Studies and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Williamson studies taxation and democracy in the United States, and has written about school segregation, tax opinion, tax politics, the Tea Party, anti-union legislation, voter registration at income tax filing, and taxpayer citizenship, among other related topics.
March 30 - April 2: Robert Maxim
Robert Maxim is a fellow at Brookings Metro. He conducts research on place-based industrial policy, developing more inclusive state innovation economies, broadening access to highly digital employment, and supporting the missions of regional public universities. Additionally, Maxim is an enrolled citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and leads Brookings Metro’s research around Native American communities.
April 6-9: Vanda Felbab-Brown
Vanda Felbab-Brown is a Brookings senior fellow in Foreign Policy and the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology. Additionally, she serves as the Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, and as Co-Director for the Africa Security Initiative. Felbab-Brown is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies.
April 20-23: Aaron Klein
Aaron Klein is a Brookings senior fellow in the Center on Regulation and Markets and the Miriam K. Carliner Chair within Economic Studies. His research focuses on financial technology and regulation, payments, macroeconomics, and infrastructure finance and policy. Previously, Klein directed the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative and served as chief economist of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
