James Sullivan is a professor of economics and Gilbert F. Schaefer College Chair at the University of Notre Dame.  He has been a visiting scholar at the National Poverty Center and a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Harris School. His research examines the consumption, saving, and borrowing behavior of poor households, and how welfare and tax policy affects the well-being of the poor. In 2012, with fellow Notre Dame Professor William Evans, Professor Sullivan founded the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO). LEO is a research center that works with service providers to identify effective and replicable solutions to reduce poverty in America. Sullivan received his bachelors degree from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.