Past Recipients: Outstanding Recent Alumna

The Outstanding Recent Alumna Award was established in 1992 to honor an alum still in the early stages of their life’s work, but who nonetheless has “used her Scripps education in the quest for personal excellence; demonstrated a willingness to seek out challenges and take risks; and has maintained loyalty to the Scripps community.” The award is presented each year during Reunion Weekend.

Latest Recipient: Alycia Chin ’07

Alycia Chin is a behavioral scientist in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Office of Investor Research. In her role, she helps direct a multidisciplinary team of scientists who design and execute novel research projects to inform public policy and help underserved communities achieve financial security. Due to the team’s unique access to policymakers—the decision-makers who craft regulations governing the investment industry—its recent work has concentrated on creating a targeted evidence base for policy teams to apply when addressing investors’ needs. The team’s research was incorporated into a regulation adopted by the SEC prescribing standards for how mutual funds display performance, which had a direct impact on a $27 trillion industry. More recently, Congress requested research on registered index-linked annuities, products in a rapidly growing $38 billion annuity market that investors use to save for retirement. In response, the team conducted investor testing that was cited in a newly proposed regulation.

In the past, Alycia served as a research scientist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Outside these roles, Alycia engages with young scholars about policy-embedded research careers through regular talks at the California Policy Lab, a mentorship role in the Scripps La Semeuse Mentorship program, and formerly filled a Visiting Fellow role at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Alycia graduated with a bachelor’s degree in politics/international relations and economics from Scripps College in 2007 and earned a PhD in behavioral decision research from Carnegie Mellon University. She has published 17 peer-reviewed academic articles on numerous topics, including how consumers choose mortgages, form stock market expectations, and understand financial disclosures.

Past Recipients