Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently an Associate Professor at Agnes Scott College.

Professor Oyelere's research interests fall into four main fields: development economics, labor and demographic economics, education economics and health economics. However, most of her current and past research lies at the intersection of two or more of these fields.

Her recent published joint research in education and demography is focused on racial and gender differences in the effect of limited English students on achievement of native students and the impact of an increase in limited English children in public schools on performance of native students. She has also recently published joint research investigating the determinants of immigrant homeownership and examining their changing role since the great recession. Her past research in development and labor focused on precisely estimating the role of policy on changes in returns to education in Venezuela and Nigeria, and precisely estimating the returns to education in Nigeria. Her past published labor research show that the Black-White gap in entrepreneurship in the U.S exhibits intra-race heterogeneity and an immigrant's home country's level of development matters for entrepreneurship in the U.S.

Her current joint research projects are first estimating the impact of the 6-3-3-4 system in Nigeria on labor market outcomes. Second, estimating the direct impact of conflict on attainment in Colombia and also examining the impact of armed conflict on welfare outcomes in Nigeria. Third, testing for a relationship between marriage market prospects and homeownership among the never married. Fourth estimating the impact of alcohol consumption by parents on children's attainment in a developing country, and finally estimating the welfare impacts of a crop marketing program in Zambia.

She joined IZA as a Research Fellow in September 2007.