Pronouns:  she/her
Graduation year: 2012
Hometown: Bocatello, Idaho
Currently living in: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Current occupation: Assistant Professor of Economics at United States Air Force Academy

What was your experience like at CC as an Economics major?

The economics major was an amazing experience for me. The CC faculty and my peers in the Economics department created a community that was welcoming and supportive. I’m quite introverted and I often struggled to speak up in class. But that never deterred the faculty from making sure I was included and recognized. Kristina Acri would hold office hours in the morning before class so I could ‘participate’ one-on-one. In the summer before my senior year, Dan Johnson saw me walking back from the library and offered me a summer research position on the spot. Esther Redmount helped me turn my thesis into an academic paper for peer review. Kevin Rask championed me going to graduate school to study the economics of education. And Nancy Heinecke kept me awake with my daily mid-morning candy. The faculty were always present and ready to help me achieve my goals. I think the Economics major enabled me to define who I am and what I want to achieve. I can unequivocally say, my experience in the major was overwhelmingly positive.

Why were you interested in focusing on Economics as your major?

I was always interested in why people make the choices they’ve made and how we could improve societal outcomes through our collective choices. When I entered CC, I thought I could better understand human decision making through a historical lens, and I had planned to become a History major. After my FYE, The History of Education, I was even more convinced of my goals. But a nudge from my father convinced me to take an economics course because it would ‘combine my passion for history with my mathematical skills.’ Esther Redmount’s Principles of Macroeconomics course quickly convinced me that economics was right for me. Economics provided me a unique lens to view decision making on both an individual level as well as a social level. Once I got to econometrics, I was able to see how we can use large datasets to better understand why people behave the way they do, and how our policymakers might be able to use these estimates to create evidence-based policies that can improve social outcomes. I think our CC faculty demonstrated that the usefulness of economics is how we can use the results from our theory and empirical analysis to inform future policy decisions.

How are you using your major in your post-CC life?

I think I can honestly say that I use my economics major, and the skills I developed at CC, every day. After CC, I earned my PhD at Cornell University, with a research focus on the economics of education. I now teach economics at the US Air Force Academy and each day I try to emulate the amazing CC faculty when I engage with my students. I recently had the opportunity to spend my summer on loan to the White House Council of Economic Advisors, in which I used my skills from CC and Cornell to work with the US Department of Education on proposed changes to the student loan program and the US Department of Agriculture on the challenges faced by schools regarding the summer food service program. The Economics major at CC helped me develop my critical thinking and empirical analysis skills which I use every day as I engage with policymakers, students, and my fellow academics.