Jennie W. Wenger is a senior economist at RAND, where she studies education and training, military compensation, and industrial policy. Over the last 20 years, she has been the principal investigator of a series of studies examining the effectiveness of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program, a DoD-sponsored program for high school dropouts. Wenger has led and contributed to other recent projects examining options for retaining the Army's cyber expertise, how the Post–9/11 GI Bill influences military recruiting and retention, the implications of demographic changes on military recruiting in the United States and abroad, the implications of integrating women into combat arms occupations, balancing quality of life with mission tempo on Coast Guard cutters, and factors that influence the decision to transition to the Reserve Components. Much of her recent research focuses on using economics to improve industrial policy and national security, and on disconnected youth.
Before joining RAND, Wenger was a senior research scientist and project manager at CNA, where she authored a series of reports examining the relationship between body fat and performance in the enlisted military and served as the co-PI on a study documenting many aspects of military dependents' educational experiences. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Ph.D. in economics, University of North Carolina
