Jennie Wenger

Senior Economist, RAND Corporation

Jennie W. Wenger is a Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation, where she studies education and training, military compensation, and recruiting. Some of her recent projects have examined the implications of integrating women into combat arms occupations, changes in diversity in the military over time, factors that influence the decision to transition to the Reserve Components, and the effectiveness of the Beyond Yellow Ribbon programs which assist service members transitioning back to the civilian world after deployments. Before joining RAND, she was a Senior Research Scientist and Project Manager at CNA. She has been the principal investigator of a series of studies examining the effectiveness of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program, a DoD-sponsored program for high school dropouts. She authored a series of reports examining the relationship between body fat and performance in the enlisted military. She was the co-PI on a study documenting many aspects of military dependents’ educational experiences. Wenger received her Ph. D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.