Dr. Sameeksha Desai joined O'Neill's faculty in 2010. She specializes in entrepreneurship, competitiveness, and economic development policy. In her research, she explores the conditions that influence entrepreneurship and the regional economic and resilience outcomes of various types of entrepreneurial activity. Desai’s work focuses on access to entrepreneurial opportunity and inclusive economic development pathways.
Desai was the director of knowledge creation and research at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. She has been the (U.S.) co-chair of the Transatlantic Policy Consortium, and she was previously with the Ratio Institute in Stockholm. She was a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany.
Desai has received numerous awards, fellowships, and grants for her work. Her work has been supported by government, nonprofit, and international organizations.
“Stickiness of entrepreneurs: an exploratory study of migration in two mid-sized US cities,” (with Yasuyaki Motoyama), Small Business Economics, (June 2021)
