Dr. Syeda Warda Riaz is an Assistant Professor in the Chaudhry Nazar Muhammad (CNM) Department of Economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). She holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis, where her dissertation focused on social protection and health. Her research sits at the intersection of health economics, development economics, and gender — with a particular focus on social protection, cash transfers, and women's wellbeing in Pakistan and South Asia. Her work has been published in the Journal of Human Resources, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, and the Journal of Development Effectiveness, and she has ongoing projects on perinatal depression, child health, HPV vaccination barriers, and intra-household bargaining. She is an IGC Research Affiliate and a Founding Board Member of the International Development Economics Association, and has received research funding from UNICEF, the World Bank, and IGC.