Melissa Knox
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mknox.bsky.social
Melissa Knox
@mknox.bsky.social
Economist at the University of Washington. Interested in health and nutrition policy, public health, demography, econ of gender, and gender in econ. More of a data nerd than a data geek. #EconSky 📉📈 #TeachEcon (Also 🚴🏻‍♀️☕️🧶)

More at: melissaknox.net
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So happy to be able to share my article on Seattle’s Fresh Bucks program! FB is a $40/month benefit that can be spent on fresh fruits and vegetables at all local Safeways, farmers markets, and some smaller grocers. It requires *no* SNAP enrollment and *no* matched spending… 🧵1/7
Seattle’s $40/month health food voucher program was associated with increased food security, and increased fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income residents. ja.ma/41asI6W
Reposted by Melissa Knox
Normal people are just sick to fucking death of the cruelty and meanness
November 5, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
Seattle, you have two hours to turn those ballots in. Are you going to let NYC make us look bad?
New Yorkers are HITTING THOSE POLLS. It's the highest turnout in about two decades.
November 5, 2025 at 1:53 AM
What’s left when you try to buy donuts after 11am on a rainy Sunday in my neighborhood.
October 26, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Oh my brain is a haunted house, apparently.
👻👻👻
October 24, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Ack, it looks like I need *two* discussants for #APPAM2025 sessions on health and nutrition policy evaluations. Anyone on #EconSky or #PolicySky planning to attend and interested in potentially helping out? Happy to answer any questions. Thanks!
October 17, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Books are also “free” (note that accessing ai still requires an expensive computer or smart phone and internet service).

See also: MOOCs, the printing press, blah blah…
Wow. Just wow.

"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
Wow. Just wow.

"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Yes, but also… (Can still feel and hear exactly how my grandmother’s felt and sounded when I would play with it at her house.)
October 14, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
Wow. My University of Washington colleague Amy Hagopian was expelled from APHA for her pro-Palestinan advocacy. 🧵

academeblog.org/2025/10/07/w...
What to Do When Your Professional Association Breaks Your Heart
BY AMY HAGOPIAN Public health professionals are charged with responding to humanitarian crises. When hospitals are bombed, when children are deliberately starved, when doctors are assassinated, we’…
academeblog.org
October 8, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Add one to the side of the kids being alright. (Also, someone, maybe the same guy, did something very similar to a colleague a few years ago and the university’s response was crickets, so good for them on arresting this guy.)
October 3, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
{tinytable} 0.14.0 for #RStats makes it super easy to draw tables in html, tex, docx, typ, md & png.

There are only a few functions to learn, but don't be fooled! Small 📦s can still be powerful.

Check out the new gallery page for fun case studies.

vincentarelbundock.github.io/tinytable/vi...
September 29, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
the most important thing to remember when you see eugenicists who don’t believe that autistic people should exist rambling about “the autism epidemic” is not that they’re wrong about the “cause” (although they are absolutely wrong about it); it’s that they are eugenicists
September 23, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
Let’s talk money y’all, in our latest episode of The Hidden Curriculum We (@ajhollingsworth.bsky.social) talk with @profnoto.bsky.social o.bsky.social on negotiations: What, When, Why and How? We thank Matt for his candor and transparency on this topic!
September 16, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
My new blog post is about great books on TB!

A Plague That Refuses To Go Away: Spotlight on Great Tuberculosis Books

communities.springernature.com/posts/a-plag...
A Plague That Refuses To Go Away: Spotlight on Great Tuberculosis Books
TB has impacted humans for centuries and profoundly shaped our history. These wonderful books have captured the history, impact, and consequences of this infectious disease that is still haunting huma...
communities.springernature.com
September 15, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Essential information right here.
Things are pretty stressful right now but you can also make s'mores versions of Rice Krispie Treats by substituting 2 cups of Golden Grahams and adding semisweet chocolate chips on top. Full recipe in alt-text.
September 12, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
We (development econ faculty at Princeton) are hiring predocs, to start in summer 2026. Please share the application with folks who might be interested: rpde.princeton.edu/rpde-%E2%80%93-predoctoral-fellows-research-specialists-start-summer-2026
We'll review apps starting on 9/15. Thanks!
🚨🚨 Pre-doc Hiring! 🚨🚨

We are hiring pre-docs to start in Princeton in Summer 2026, supporting Pascaline Dupas, @thomasfujiwara.bsky.social @seema.bsky.social and Mica Sviatschi. This is a great opportunity to gain experience in development economics research before applying to PhD programs. Link 👇
September 10, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
Round one goes to Fed Independence over Trump Interference.

A federal judge ruled that Lisa Cook is "substantially likely" to prevail in her argument that Trump can't arbitrarily fire her, so she stays a Fed Governor while the case works its way through the courts

www.wsj.com/economy/cent...
www.wsj.com
September 10, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
Breaking news! Federal Judge blocks the Trump administration’s attempt to remove Governor Cook from Federal Reserve Board. www.wsj.com/economy/cent...
Judge Blocks Trump From Removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook
The order allows Cook to remain on the central bank’s board for now while her legal challenge proceeds.
www.wsj.com
September 10, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
excellent. MORE OF THIS.
“A new volunteer-led organization called Grandparents for Vaccines launched Sunday on National Grandparents Day with a mission to share firsthand experiences of life before vaccines were widely available.” [kgw.com]
Grandparents for Vaccines launches to share stories of life before immunizations
New volunteer group aims to educate parents about vaccine importance by sharing personal experiences with preventable diseases.
www.kgw.com
September 9, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Next week in Seattle! #EconConf
Program for the 2025 Pacific Northwest Labor Day is here! Workshop will be held September 19 on the campus of the University of Washington. All economists/econ-adjacent researchers/students are welcome! (Thread with schedule follows.) #EconSky #EconConf

melissaknox.net/pnwld.html
PNW Labor Day – Melissa Knox
melissaknox.net
September 9, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Oh hell yes, UW and Washington state!
September 6, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Reposted by Melissa Knox
;)
July 15, 2025 at 6:42 PM
My first year in college, the lecture hall for psych 101 had ashtrays, and I had to put quarters into a machine to type my papers on an electric typewriter. And this was in the (early) 90s!! (Did they not have computers or did I just not know about the computers? The answer is lost to time…)
My students looked at me funny today when I explained to them that when I took the analogue to the class that we're in together, there were ashtrays in the chairs

(I think the university had just gone to no-smoking in class three to five years before I arrived on campus)

#PublicHealth
#OldMan
September 2, 2025 at 7:11 PM