Kitt Carpenter

What is your role and area of focus here at Vanderbilt University?

My primary role at Vanderbilt is as a Professor of Economics, but I am fortunate to share courtesy affiliations with the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies, and with the schools of law, medicine, and education given the cross-disciplinary nature of my research.  I am trained as a health economist, and my research encompasses public policy evaluation and economic demography.  I have two main strands of research: one on the causes and consequences of preventive and risky health behaviors (e.g., flu shots, mammograms, smoking, alcohol consumption, etc.) and one on the socioeconomic and health outcomes of LGBTQ populations.  I also direct the Program in Public Policy Studies and the Vanderbilt LGBT Policy Lab, a TIPS-supported initiative.

How did you arrive at Vanderbilt?

After two years in a postdoctoral program at the University of Michigan and nine years at the University of California at Irvine, an amazing opportunity opened up at Vanderbilt to be part of an effort supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to train the next generation of minority health economists and health policy scholars.  RWJF sponsored my postdoc at Michigan and has supported my research extensively in the past, so I was especially attracted to the effort.  Although that program has been phased out, it gave me the opportunity to work with wonderful PhD students in economics and attracted me to Vanderbilt, for which I’m happy and grateful since I love my job.

Who were the key people that influenced you and helped you on your journey?

In chronological order: my parents adopted me as a five month old baby from South Korea when they already had four kids in tow.  Neither has a bachelors’ degree; my dad worked second shift in an auto factory all his life and my mom was an administrative assistant at an insurance company.  They have always supported me.  In high school I had a teacher – Mr. Christopher – who taught us AP government, AP microeconomics, and AP macroeconomics in a single year; we would come in on Saturdays for him to cover all the material (and he lived 45 minutes away from the school!).  I entered college with loads of AP credit and got a head start in economics, and honestly this is probably why/how I ended up being an economist. One of the first people I met while doing my PhD at Berkeley, Hilary Hoynes, was very important in my academic development and continues to be a trusted mentor.  As a faculty member, senior people in my research fields have helped me enormously (e.g., Mike Grossman, John Cawley, Lee Badgett, and others).  Finally, my husband has been amazingly supportive and has given up a lot for me to advance in my career over the fifteen years we have been together.  I have a lot to be thankful for, and a lot to pay forward, which I try to do.

What do you want others to know about LGBTQI communities at Vanderbilt and beyond?

One thing I don’t think people know is that there is an unusually strong academic community related to LGBTQI issues at Vanderbilt.  I have been consistently (and pleasantly) surprised at the number of scholars in different departments who have expertise in LGBTQI issues, in particular LGBTQ policy issues.  Not many institutions our size have this level of intellectual capital.  Our Vanderbilt LGBT Policy Lab has external speakers come on a regular basis on topics ranging from stability in same-sex unions from a sociological perspective to the role of religion in sexuality-based public policy to LGBT rights and mental health of sexual and gender minorities.  All of these events are open to the Vanderbilt community and can be found on our TIPS website: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/strategicplan/trans-institutional-programs/tips-2017/lgbt-policy-lab.php.

What are some key moments within LGBTQI history that are important to you? What does your sexual, gender identity and/or gender expression add to your role here at Vanderbilt?

In my adult life the path toward full marriage equality has been particularly salient: the Supreme Court decisions in Windsor (2013) and Obergefell (2015) in particular.  I lived in California throughout the state’s first granting of same-sex marriage and then its revocation (Prop 8) and through all of the legal limbo.  These experiences inform my research as I strive to create knowledge that accurately reflects the lived experiences of sexual minorities.  I know what it’s like for public policies to directly affect health and well-being, the stress of not knowing if a partner will be recognized as such in various health care or other government settings, the extra resources spent on creative legal arrangements needed to fill holes where current laws do not cover.  I know what it’s like to literally not know if I was technically married or not depending on what state I’m driving through.  I think these experiences make me a better and more informed researcher.  That said, there is a lot I don’t know – a lot of experiences I haven’t had (especially as a 6’3” cis man with a lot of privilege), and I am always trying to learn and understand more.

What message do you have for the Vanderbilt community about serving and supporting LGBTQI people and communities?

I would encourage all members of the campus community to recognize that there are many members of the LGBTQI community here – especially students and staff – who may not have the ability to be out in all aspects of their life.  When global, national, state, and/or local events happen that may have disproportionate harmful effects on LGBTQI communities, as they regularly do, many folks are suffering in silence.  We should all try to be better at respectfully reaching out and checking in with others during these times, and we should encourage our leaders to speak out in support of these communities.

What mark do you hope to leave on Vanderbilt, your community, the nation, the world?

Broadly, I hope my research helps us (academics, policymakers, practitioners) better understand sexual and gender minorities and how public policies affect these communities.  At Vanderbilt I hope to have contributed to making the place more welcoming for people from a range of backgrounds.  Within my professional communities, I want to create professional development opportunities for sexual and gender minorities in academia generally and economics/public policy in particular.

What is a fun or interesting fact about you?

I am obsessed with tennis.  I am not particularly good, but I am obsessed.  When the Vanderbilt women’s team won the 2015 national championship held at Baylor by beating UCLA in the finals, I may or may not have been watching every match on the live stream.  And I may or may not have had tears in my eyes.  Go ‘Dores.