Lauren Rivera

Lauren Rivera is an expert on workplace personnel practices, with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has written extensively on hiring and promotion practices in elite professional service firms. Her award-winning book Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs (Princeton University Press, 2015) investigates hiring decisions for top-tier investment banks, consulting firms, and law firms. She is currently working on a variety of projects examining discrimination in public and private education. Her research has been featured in the Atlantic, Economist, Financial Times, Fortune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and NPR. In recognition for her work, Professor Rivera received the American Sociological Association's William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. She has been named a top business school professor by Poets & Quants and a rising management star by Thinkers50. She received her B.A. in sociology and psychology from Yale University and her Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University. She previously worked at Evite.com and Monitor Deloitte.

Research Interests

Discrimination, culture, interpersonal evaluation, inequality, decision-making, organizations, social class, gender, education, qualitative and mixed methods

Education

• PhD, 2009, Sociology, Harvard University
• AM, 2006, Sociology, Harvard University
• BA, 2000, Sociology and Psychology, Yale University, Magna cum laude; distinction in both majors

Academic Positions

• Professor, Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2020-present
• Associate Professor, Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (on leave AY 15-16), 2013-present
• Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2009-2013

Awards

• Saroj Parasuraman Award (Runner-Up), Academy of Management
• Granovetter Award for the Best Article in Economic Sociology, American Sociological Association, 2020
• Distinguished Article Prize, American Sociological Association, Section on Sex & Gender, 2017
• Best Book Award, American Sociological Association, Section on Sociology of Law, 2016
• Outstanding Article Prize, American Sociological Association, Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility, 2016
• Max Weber Book Prize, American Sociological Association, Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work, 2016
• Mary Douglas Book Prize, American Sociological Association, Section on Culture, 2016
• William Julius Wilson Early Career Award, American Sociological Association, Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility, 2016
• Thinkers50 - Most Influential Management Thinkers, www.thinkers50.com, 2016
• Axiom Business Books Silver Medal, Axiom Business Books, 2016
• Named one of the world's best business school professors under 40, Poets and Quants, 2015
• Best Paper Prize, The Davis Conference on Qualitative Research, 2014
• Kellogg Chairs' Core Course Teaching Award, 2013-2014
• Granovetter Award for the Best Article in Economic Sociology, American Sociological Association, 2013
• Geertz Award for the Best Article in the Sociology of Culture, American Sociological Association, 2013
• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management, 2011

Editorial Positions

• Editorial Board, American Sociological Review, 2021-2024
• Editorial Board, Research in the Sociology of Work, 2017-2020
• Editorial Board, American Journal of Sociology, 2017-2020
• Editorial Board, Sociology of Education, 2013-2018
• Referee, Sociology of Education, 2009-