Djavad Salehi-Isfahani is a Professor of Economics at Virginia Tech. He received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University and has previously served on the faculty of economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Salehi-Isfahani is a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo and has also served as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. His current research focuses on the economics of sanctions, inequality, family economics in the Middle East, and the empirical evaluation of welfare policies. He is the co-author of the book How Sanctions Work, published by Stanford University Press in 2024. His economic opinion pieces and analyses regularly appear in prominent global outlets, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy.