David M. Caughlin

David Caughlin is the Project Director of the Center for Political Economy (CPE), where he oversees all activities of the Center, reviews expenditures and reports to donors.  

Previously, David worked at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) where he served as the Associate Director for the MPA in Economic Policy Management (PEPM) and the Center on Global Economy and Governance (CGEG).  In both roles he collaborated with many of Columbia’s global centers, as well as with a variety of schools and offices at Columbia, as well as external partners in the US and internationally. Prior to his work at SIPA, he worked as Program Manager at Columbia’s Law School’s Public Interest Law Initiative, where he oversaw a fellowship program for human rights lawyers from Central and Eastern Europe and Asia.

Before coming to Columbia, David worked as Special Projects Manager at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, where, among other duties, he oversaw the development of a publication on Russian constitutional law in Russian.  David holds two master’s degrees – in Human Rights from Central European University, and an MPA at SIPA where he concentrated in International Economic Policy and Management – and is earning a third master’s at Teachers College in Higher and Postsecondary Education.  David was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine and speaks Ukrainian, Russian and some Hungarian. He is an avid jogger and is currently training for his third NYC marathon.