DT_T-Season1-Episode 8 - Edward(Ted) Miguel - Founder and a Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Effective Global Action(CEGA)

DT_T (Do The _ Thing) Season 1 - Epsiode 8 Spotlights on Edward “Ted” Miguel — Founder and Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and Distinguished Professor of Economics, Oxfam Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics

Ted’s work focuses on understanding one of the most fundamental questions of our time: why do some parts of the world continue to face poverty, limited access to healthcare and education, and systemic inequality—and what truly helps improve lives in a meaningful way.

Drawing from his own upbringing as the child of immigrants, Ted shares how early experiences of witnessing global inequality shaped his path. What began as a personal awareness evolved into a lifelong commitment to combining empathy with rigorous problem-solving.

At CEGA, Ted and his team work at the intersection of research and action—generating evidence on global development challenges and partnering with governments, nonprofits, and organizations to translate that knowledge into policies that improve lives around the world.

In this reflective conversation, Ted speaks about:

•  the role of empathy in shaping a life’s work 
•  the importance of evidence in creating real impact 
•  how research can move beyond theory into action 
•  the sustaining power of community in long-term impact work 
•  and why staying rooted in one’s values matters more than following a single “right” path 

He also offers a thoughtful perspective for those discerning their own path—encouraging listeners not to let immediate barriers limit their vision, but to stay connected to their values and the kind of life they hope to build.

This conversation is a reminder that impact is not only created through action—but also through understanding, intention, and the pursuit of truth.

Learn more about CEGA: https://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/

Sometimes the purpose we’re called to do begins long before we know how to name it.

Transcript

Sheela 0:01

Welcome to the Do the Dash Thing Podcast. It's all about doing the dash thing. That unique gift calling or purpose only you can bring to the world. This podcast showcases the beautiful things being done by incredible individuals. And it's also an invitation for you to look within, recognize your own gift, and fill in your dash. This is the Do the Dash Thing Podcast, and I'm Sheila, your host. Welcome Ted to DT Dash the Do the Dash Thing Podcast. This podcast is about spotlighting your story, your journey, and how your gifts found their way into service. So listeners who sense something more feel encouraged to take their next interchange step. So let me begin with this. Could you please share a little bit about yourself?

Ted 0:57

Yeah, sure. I'm Ted Miguel. I'm a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. That's my kind of professional affiliation. I work in international development. So my goal really professionally is to try to understand why certain parts of the world are poor, why people aren't getting good healthcare, good education, and do research to try to understand how to improve their lives. And then through the senator that I direct here at Berkeley, the Center for Effective Global Action, Sega, we then put in place programs and efforts to try to change public policy in a positive way. So that's my kind of professional identity. But you know, beyond that, in terms of who I am, I'm American. I was born in New York. My parents were both immigrants. My dad was from Uruguay. My mom is from Poland. So different parts of the world. It's kind of the American immigrant story. They met up, they were working in the same place in New York City. And so that's a very important part of who I am and my background. And another really important part of who I am is my family. I have a lovely wife. I have two great kids who are in high school right now. And that's a super important part of who I am, even beyond the professional side. So it was just a little bit of background of where I came from and what I'm working on.

Sheela 2:27

Awesome. Thank you very much. When did you first feel drawn towards the work that you are doing at CEGA? And probably even please tell us a little bit about CEGA, your work as well.

Ted 2:40

Yeah, so the center here is something I'm really proud of because we we do multiple things. We do a lot of research. We're based at a university and generating new research, new data, new evidence on international development and poverty is really central to what we do. But then there's this other very important step of taking that evidence and trying to push it into action. And we have partnerships with many governments in low and middle-income countries, with many nonprofits and NGOs. And we've managed through all the research that we've done here to influence many policies around the world. And it's actually very exciting to have been part of this just to feel like the work we're doing is having a positive impact on people's lives by leading to better evidence and better policy. For me, my own journey, it does relate, I think, to my immigrant background, and that when I was a kid, we definitely traveled to visit relatives in South America and in Eastern Europe. And, you know, especially at that time, I was born in the 70s. So when I was traveling as a kid in the late 70s, early 80s, just the difference in income and living standards and quality of life between what I was experiencing in a pretty nice suburb of New York City in the US versus those other parts of the world was really incredible. And it was an amazing thing to see. And then I have a lot of families still in Uruguay and Poland. So I have cousins and aunts and uncles whose lives were really different. You know, at that time when I was first traveling to Uruguay or Poland, Poland was a communist country. It was very poor, very repressive government. And that's why my mother and my grandfather and of some other relatives left Poland, but then other relatives stayed in Poland that they didn't manage to leave. And Uruguay, where my dad was from, was a military dictatorship, and they were, you know, in the midst of an economic crisis. And so I felt very grateful, I would say, from a very young age. And I think my parents made that very clear how fortunate they were and we were to be growing up in the US, such an incredible country with so many opportunities. And I've never forgotten that. And it's always been really central, I think, to my journey and my identity is that notion or sense of empathy that people really, just like me, my own relatives, just by chance have very different lives than the life I was able to live. And then I think from a very early age, when I was a teenager and I started reading and learning about history and other things, I became very interested in global inequality. And I thought maybe I would be a diplomat or maybe I would work for the United Nations. But even when I was, I think, 12, 13, 14 years old, around that time, I thought I want to do something related to global issues, international relations, global inequality. It just felt so important to me and also very personal because of my family ties. And that really kind of set me on a path. Now, the flip side of that was when I was in high school and then even into college, I always really liked math and science a lot. I was an undergrad actually at MIT. I majored in math and economics. So I also really loved science. And so that was kind of this parallel set of interests, I would say. And I had this global interests, but then I had these more like science and math STEM interests. And at some point when I was an undergrad, I realized that by studying economics and development economics, I could be in both of these worlds. I could use the sort of technical skills that I had and my love of math and statistics and solving problems and really apply them to these big global challenges. And that was a huge moment for me. I would say if I think about my path when I was maybe, I don't know, 18, 19 years old, my first couple of years of college, when I realized that I could do that, that set me on the path that I think I'm still on today, you know, 30 plus, 30 plus years later. So I that that's a little bit of my story of how I got here, I think.

Sheela 6:48

Awesome. I love to listen to people's stories and their journeys. You know, it sparks something in whoever is listening to that. There are a few gifts within you, actually. Probably must have discovered during the process. If you would like to share a little bit of that.

Ted 7:04

Yeah, I mean, in terms of the kind of gifts or things that I'm really grateful for. And there's a lot of things we don't choose, right? There's just things that we have. I think again, maybe because of my upbringing or seeing what I'm seeing, I feel very lucky that I feel a lot of connection and empathy for people everywhere. I have a very universalist view. That's just where I come from. Maybe again because my parents are from different countries and spoke different languages, and I was in the US in a very diverse suburb. Like, I just always feel like I'm part of the universal rather than the particular. And that's just that's me, and everybody has a different view on that. But I'm very grateful for that. And I think it's really pushed me into my line of work that uh I kind of recognize the lottery of life, and anybody could end up anywhere, and anybody could be born anywhere, and there's so much talent and possibility all over the world, even in the poorest village, in the most remote part of the world. There's so much potential and opportunity and talent. And I feel like that's a big part of who I am and how I view the world. So I feel very lucky that I have that feeling. Not everybody maybe sees the world that way, and that's okay, but that's really central to how I see the world. I also think I feel very lucky that I always enjoyed solving problems and I was able to get an education from a young age in good schools where I could kind of cultivate those abilities and loved math and loved physics. And, you know, again, even though I don't do any work in physics or anything now, I just feel like there's a lot of parallels with what we're doing in economics. We're researchers, we're trying to solve problems, we're trying to understand the world. So uh I would say that just having the opportunity to cultivate both a lot of connection and empathy, but also cultivate a lot of problem-solving skills. Those are things that really have defined a lot of my, you know, my career. And in terms of my personal life as well, I think I feel very lucky to have the family that I have becoming a father. I have two kids, is also something that really changes. Not everybody has kids, and not everybody has the experience of being a parent. But for me at least, it was a very eye-opening uh experience. And I think it made me more patient. And uh, and again, it makes you, I think naturally you tend to become a little more focused on others and having connection, empathy for others when you go through that experience. So I feel very lucky to have that experience. So those are a few things that I think have really shaped, you know, shaped who I am and defined my personal life, my professional life if I if I think about who I am.

Sheela 9:39

Yeah, there is a value in discovery, but at the same time, you're connected with the need that is out there. That is also very important and uh it is a beautiful thing. Thank you. So, what sustains you in long-term uh impact work?

Ted 9:56

Yeah, for me, I I think there's a lot of things in the kind of day-to-day in the short run. I feel really sustained by my colleagues here at Sega, the Center for Effective Global Action, and at Berkeley. We managed to build a community of people that have a lot of the same values, have a lot of the same interests. And I think day-to-day, all of us feel motivated when we're in a community of people who really support what we're doing, who have the same ideals. So I feel very grateful for that. That really sustains me having colleagues to pick you up. You know, the last year, and I think probably a lot of your listeners have been following it, the last year plus has been very challenging in international development, in part because of the administration in Washington right now shutting down lots of foreign aid programs, cutting off a lot of assistance programs, and really just kind of cutting off a lot of international cooperation, including for programs and activities that have saved millions of lives, that have improved millions of lives, like really valuable activities. So our community in international development has really been under threat from everything from partnerships to funding, et cetera. And I think having a community of people here at Sega and at Berkeley and my broader kind of professional community has been very important to just keep us all motivated and sustain what we're doing and not get too demoralized and kind of understanding that in life things come and go, they go up and down, and we have to, regardless of what things look like now, if we really have these values, we have to fight for them, we have to keep pushing for them. So it has been a moment to try our movement and our values, but our community is still strong. So I'm still very lucky to have that kind of sustaining community here and colleagues. There's other things that sustain life, and this is maybe a little different than just the professional side. So for me, over the last maybe 12, 15 years, I've become a lot more interested in health and nutrition just for myself. And it was something that when I was 20 years old or 30 years old, I didn't think that much about. You know, I was lucky that I was healthy at those ages. And you know, a lot of people in their young ages just tend to be pretty healthy. I was really lucky after that. But I think as I'd gotten older, I'd become much more interested in running. So I run several days a week and I kind of stay in shape that way. But but in terms of sustaining me, I find that process of staying fit and staying active and energetic. I don't know, like the blood goes flowing through your brain and through your body, and it's just renewing for me. And I have so many new insights into my life or my work or my family while I'm running. It's a kind of active meditation, I think, for me. That's the role it plays in my life. I don't meditate outside of running, but I feel like the running is kind of my meditation. So, and I become very interested in you know, nutrition and good sleep. And so um, part of that is linked to being a parent. It was really my kids are now 17 and 15. I think when they were very young, it just kind of hit me that every day, every way I lived my life would in some way influence them, or they would see me as a kind of you know, role model, naturally. That's how kids see their parents. And I wanted to make sure I was living my life in a way that would be healthy for them and good for them. And so, even modeling, you know, good sleep and good nutrition and good exercise and good family rituals, we always eat dinner together every night and we spend time together. And I think this is an example where having that being fortunate enough to have that experience of being a parent has really impacted me because it made me feel like the stakes were very high for my own behavior, my own, you know, just the way I conducted myself. Um so it's it's again, it's been a really cool um part of my life. And and it makes me really happy when my kids, you know, have the choice to eat something healthy or not healthy, and they go, you know, let me let me do the right thing. It means I'm healthy that's good for me, that's nutritious. It may seem like a small thing, but I feel like in the long run to their life and their well-being, these are the little things we can do as parents to just push them along as well. So that's a bit tangential to work, but all these things reinforce each other because if you don't have that sense of well-being, uh then it's harder to really have impact in the world, I think.

Sheela 14:22

Oh, that's beautiful because we forget self-care sometimes, and I'm so glad that you were highlighting that. Thank you for sharing that. Is there an encouragement, the insight you might offer to someone deciding their own sense of call, or I call it their dash?

Ted 14:42

Yeah, I mean, I get this question sometimes from my students. I've been talking a lot about my research, but a big part of my job as faculty and my life here is teaching students, undergraduate, graduate students, and there are a lot of students who are facing choices. There are students that feel like they have a calling that's service-oriented, that um can have a positive impact on society. And then they're also maybe feeling a lot of pressures not to follow that path, and for good reason. They have to put food on the table, they have opportunities maybe in different sectors that are less socially oriented and maybe more personally lucrative or personally fulfilling in in some ways. And the what I tell those students always is my path is my path, their path is their path. And sometimes the right thing to do is to go and get that job to make money. Maybe they need to do that in their personal life. There's no one right and wrong, there's no shame in following that path either. We all have to do what's what's right for us. But the thing I do tell them is just really think about your values, think about the person you want to be. Think about like if you could do something and you could achieve it for sure. You knew you could achieve this goal. What would that goal be? I think that's one way to put it. Sometimes people get caught up in the barriers and they say, Oh, it'd be so hard to do this great thing because I have to get through these two or three steps. And that prevents them from even envisioning where they want to go in the future. They get caught up in the short run barrier. So, what I do try to tell my students is think of what that ultimate goal is and envision it and imagine it. And then sometimes you can find a way around those barriers, but don't let the short run barriers prevent you from even dreaming about the future. And I think if people do that, then hopefully they'll be able to realize uh where they're going. But there's no one right path, and it isn't like, oh, the public sector is good and the private is bad, or the private is good, and the public is bad, or academic is good, and everybody has to find their own way. I would just hope that they stay to their values and they try to live a dream in their life and they don't lose those aspirations. That would be the one thing I would ask people to do.

Sheela 16:54

Values, I think that's the highlight. Meaningful, practical. Just pause and reflect on that and go from there. Thank you, Ted. And thank you for being guest on this podcast. And I really appreciate your work as CEGA Center for Effective Global Action. I I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 17:15

Thank you very much. It's such an honor to have this conversation with you, and thanks for giving me the opportunity to share some of who I am with you all.

Speaker 17:24

Do the dash thing. If you would like us to celebrate your unique gift, or maybe even feature you in a future episode, please subscribe to the Do the Dash Thing podcast and share your dash with us. Just answer these three simple questions. What is the gift that brings you happiness? When did you first recognize it in yourself? How are you sharing that gift with others today? That's my whole selection process. As, I always say, look within yourself and recognize the unique gifts that are in you. Then fill in the dash, your dash, in the community and the world around you. Sharing your gift brings happiness to you and helps build a better world. Tune in next Tuesday for another episode of the Do the Dash Thing Podcast. Thank you for listening and don't forget to subscribe.