Nara Monkam is the latest appointee in the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Economic Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS). Monkam, who joined the Department of Economics on 1 August 2022 as an Associate Professor of Economics, brings with her more than 16 years' worth of experience in public policy and public economics. In her new role, she will be responsible for establishing a Public Policy Hub for EMS and UP at large in addition to her lecturing and research activities in public economics. The Public Policy Hub is envisioned to contribute to the transformation of Africa into a global powerhouse for impactful public policy through collaborative, multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research that will bridge the gap between policymakers, practitioners in the public sector, and research experts. The research conducted in the hub will strengthen evidence-based, contextually relevant, and sustainable public policy in addition to bringing real-world learning to the faculty’s graduate teaching and training programmes. Prior to joining UP, she was Director of Research at the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) from February 2014 to April 2022, where she was responsible for fostering and maintaining strong relationships with member countries, establishing, and strengthening relationships with development partners and donors, as well as implementing ATAF’s research agenda on taxation and related matters to inform tax reforms and policy formulation in Africa. Her research interests are in public economics, domestic resource mobilisation, tax policy and tax administration (TADAT Assessor), fiscal decentralisation and property taxation.