Challey Spotlight: Baishali Rahman, MS, MBA

Baishali Rahman

Challey Research Specialist

Background and Academic Journey

A move to Fargo reshaped more than a career plan, and it reframed a research agenda. Arriving from a tropical climate to living off campus and walking to the bus in subzero windchill, Baishali saw transportation through a new lens. This shift in environment and lifestyle not only changed her perspective on point-to-point travel but also highlighted the importance of everyday modes of transportation for real people. This experience nudged a pivot from a general interest in transportation and supply chains to a sharper focus on public transit, bike connectivity, and, looking ahead, how emerging options like urban air mobility might fit into a vertically integrated system.

Before beginning graduate study at NDSU, she spent nearly a decade with Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank. Her work there included bank supervision, foreign exchange compliance, and analysis to support monetary policy.

Curiosity has been the throughline since childhood, always asking “why” rather than just “what.” At NDSU, that curiosity found form in research. With early professional experience in finance but little formal research, she dove in under the encouragement of advisor David C. Roberts, exploring the economics of precision agriculture technology for her master’s thesis, including how smarter tools can reduce input costs and waste for farmers and deliver spillover benefits to non-farmers. Today, as a Ph.D. student in transportation and supply chain logistics, that blend of practical questions and rigorous analysis drives her work.

Research Focus and Insights

At the Challey Institute, Baishali studies how immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy through workforce participation, productivity, and taxes, and how the economy changes when the share of immigrant workers rises. As an immigrant herself, the question is not abstract. Early model runs suggest a positive relationship between immigrant workforce growth and productivity. The team, working with colleagues John Bitzan and Richard Feir, is now digging into mechanisms: which sectors see the largest gains, how skills are matched, and where policy frictions might mute potential benefits. These mechanisms include the role of education, the impact of innovation, and the influence of public investment on productivity.

The motivation is straightforward: much of the public conversation runs on anecdotes. Baishali's mission is to center evidence. Clear data and careful modeling can illuminate contributions and costs so that policymakers can weigh tradeoffs honestly. That also means examining barriers that keep willing workers on the sidelines. Work-visa processes that are slow or opaque do not just affect individuals; they constrain growth in communities that need talent.

Broader Impact and Public Engagement

The goal is not to “win an argument,” but to help people see the terrain. Well-designed research makes complex systems legible. It moves debate from “I think” to “Here is what the data show,” and then to “Here is a feasible path forward.” In practice, that looks like transparent methods, replicable results, and policy briefs that map findings to options, where a change in licensing, processing time, or recognition of foreign credentials could unlock real gains for both workers and employers.

Baishali’s transportation background keeps her grounded in practical integration. Whether it is transit links to job centers or skill pathways that bridge workers into shortages, she is interested in how pieces connect, economically and physically, so that people can take advantage of opportunity.

Professional Motivation and Future Goals

What keeps the work fun? For Baishali, it's the thrill of finding the missing piece in the literature, the 'gap' that completes a story. She loves detective work: surveying what is known, spotting the seam that is underexplored, and bringing new data to bear. Discovering a dataset others have overlooked is its own thrill, not for novelty’s sake, but because it can sharpen the policy picture.

Looking ahead, she is eager to explore how AI is changing household financial behavior: where people get advice, how much they trust it, whether their banking and investment choices become more or less resilient, and how those effects differ by age and financial literacy. That inquiry ties back to the Institute’s mission, innovation, opportunity, and human flourishing, by asking whether new tools are narrowing or widening the gap between savvy and struggling decision makers.

Outside of Work

Music is the other constant. Trained in Indian classical music, she plays harmonium, sitar, flute, and tabla, and is now learning violin from her daughter. Family time, travel, and impromptu music sessions with friends round out her weeks, a counterpoint to data and models that keeps the work human.

The Sheila and Robert Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth aims to advance understanding in the areas of innovation, trade, institutions, and human potential to identify policies and solutions that enhance economic growth and opportunity. Learn more at www.ndsu.edu/challeyinstitute