Valerie Mueller is the co-leader of the Development Strategy and Governance Division's research under the Rural-Urban Linkages for Development Program. Prior to joining IFPRI, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. She is interested in research topics covering migration and poverty dynamics and the consequences of climate variability on household welfare in developing countries.

Dr. Mueller earned her B.S. in Environmental Economics and Policy from the University of California, Berkeley (1998), and both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park (2001 and 2005, respectively).