Laura T. Starks is an American academic economist.
Starks earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Austin, a master's of business administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and returned to UT-Austin for a doctorate.[1] She was the Charles E. & Sarah M. Seay Regents’ Chair in Finance at the McCombs School of Business until her 2015 appointment as interim dean of the school.[2] [3] After Starks vacated the deanship, she was named George Kozmetsky Centennial University Distinguished Chair.[4]
In 2022, Starks served as President of the American Finance Association. She has also served as President of the Financial Management Association[5] (1998-1999) and the Western Finance Association[6] (2015-2016). Starks has published influential articles concerning mutual funds, and served as an independent director of the TIAA-CREF mutual funds from 2006-2022. She was also a co-editor of the Review of Financial Studies from 2008-2014.