Dr. Sandra J. Peart became the fourth dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies in August 2007. In August 2018, she was appointed to the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professorship in Leadership Studies. She became president of the Jepson Scholars Foundation in 2019. She is immediate past president of the International Adam Smith Society and a past president of the History of Economics Society, where she began the Young Scholars Program. Since 2018, she has been a Reform Club member and a Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce Fellow.
Peart has written or edited 10 books, including her two most recent books co-authored with David M. Levy: "Towards an Economics of Natural Equals: A Documentary History of the Early Virginia School" (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and "Escape from Democracy: The Role of Experts and the Public in Economic Policy" (Cambridge University Press, 2017). She is the author of more than 100 articles in the areas of constitutional political economy, leadership in experimental settings, ethics and economics, and the transition to modern economic thought. Her popular articles on leadership, ethics, higher education, and economic themes have appeared in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today, and the Washington Post.
Peart obtained her doctorate in economics from the University of Toronto in 1989. She began her career as an assistant professor of economics at the College of William and Mary and then joined the faculty at Baldwin-Wallace University. She was a visiting scholar at the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University in 2004–05, and the following year, she was a fellow of the American Council on Education.
Towards an Economics of Natural Equals: A Documentary History of the Early Virginia School, with David M. Levy. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
"Escape from Democracy: The Role of Experts and the Public in Economic Policy." Cambridge University Press, 2017.
"Hayek on Mill: The Mill-Taylor Friendship and Related Writings." University of Chicago Press, 2015.
"F. A. Hayek and the Modern Economy," co-edited with David M. Levy. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
"Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, and the Continentalists: Dehomogenizing the Liberal Tradition," History of Economic Ideas 28, no. 2 (2020): 59-71.
“Lessons for Liberalism in the 21st Century from the Colloque Walter Lippmann.” Special issue of Journal of Contextual Economics--Schmollers Jahrbuch 139, no. 2-4 (2019): 177-87.
"William Beveridge's 'Mock Trial of Economists'" (with David M. Levy), The Austrian Review of Economics (Sept. 2019): 1-32
"On Fallibility and Perfection: Boettke's Hayek vs. Mainline Economics," The Austrian Review of Economics (Sept. 2019): 1-66
"Gordon Tullock’s ill-fated appendix: 'Flatland Revisited'” (with David Levy), Constitutional Political Economy 28 (2017): 18-34.
"Group Analytics in Adam Smith’s Work," with David Levy, Eastern Economic Journal 42(4): June 2016: 514-527.
"Learning from Failure: A Review of Peter Schuck's 'Why Government Fails So Often: And How It Can Do Better'" (with David M. Levy), Journal of Economic Literature, 53(3)(2015): 667-74.
"That ‘Most Inexhaustible of All Topics’: Reflections on the Leadership Studies Curriculum at the Jepson School," Journal of Leadership Studies (2014).
"Learning from Scandal about What We Know and What We Think We Know" (with David M. Levy), Homo Oeconomicus (2013).
"The Past as a Public Good," Social Science and Modern Society 49 (2012): 240-46.
"Leadership, Cheap Talk and Really Cheap Talk," (with David M. Levy, Kail Padgitt, Daniel Houser, and Erte Xiao) Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 77 (2011): 40-52.
“Limits on the Application of Motivational Homogeneity in the Work of Buchanan and the Virginia School,” with David M. Levy, in "Buchanan’s Tensions: Reexamining the Political Economy and Philosophy of James M. Buchanan," eds. Peter J. Boettke and Solomon Stein. Arlington, VA: Mercatus (2018): 171-192.
"The Ethics Problem: Toward a Second-Best Solution to the Problem of Economic Expertise" (with David M. Levy), in "The Oxford Handbook of Professional Economic Ethics," edited by George E. DeMartino and Deirdre N. McCloskey. Oxford University Press, 2016.
“Hayek's Sympathetic Agents” (with David M. Levy), "Hayek and Liberalism," edited by Andrew Farrant. Routledge, 2010.
Public Speech and Democracy (History News Network)
Tue., Jan. 12, 2021
The Underutilized Power of 'Externalities' -- An Economist's Take on Persuasive COVID-19 Communication (CommPRO)
Wed., Sep. 16, 2020
Oh the Places You'll Go: Four Leadership Lessons from Commencement Season
Wed., Jun. 12, 2019
Kenyan students in Barack Obama Leadership Program visit Richmond University
Thu., Aug. 18, 2016
Around Robin Hood's Barn (Economic Principals)
Sun., Mar. 20, 2016
Opinion: On Thankfulness and Remembering
Sun., Nov. 15, 2015
Book edited by Dean Peart reviewed in New Statesman
Thu., May. 28, 2015
Book edited by Dean Peart featured in The New York Review of Books
Fri., Mar. 13, 2015
Malthusian ideas, used and abused (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Mon., Jun. 9, 2014
Sandra Peart named president of the International Adam Smith Society
Mon., Dec. 2, 2013
NYT article discusses research by Sandra Peart
Tue., Mar. 19, 2013
Peart to moderate LEAD VIRGINIA's "Conversations with Leaders: Women in Leadership" program
Opinion: Overhauling how we teach leadership (Washington Post)
Tue., Feb. 12, 2013
Are ethics in business still important?
Mon., Sep. 24, 2012
Peart to deliver keynote address on effective and ethical leadership in healthcare
Wed., Sep. 12, 2012
Dean Peart featured in Inside Higher Ed article on UR's new academic leadership
Fri., Jul. 15, 2011
