Lauren Rivera joined the Kellogg faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2009. Her primary line of research investigates the ways in which people evaluate merit in real-life organizational settings and how this contributes to the broader forms of social inequality. Her dissertation "Hiring and Inequality in Elite Professional Service Firms" analyzed how top-tier investment banks, law firms, and management consulting firms select new hires and influence discrepancies in employment by class, race, and gender in these fields. In a second stream of research, she examines the impression management strategies adopted by actors and organizations to alter perceptions of their own status. A cultural sociologist by training, her work draws from both qualitative and quantitative techniques and bridges micro- and macro-levels of analysis. Before joining the MORS Department, Lauren received her Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University and was a Consultant at Monitor Group in London.