The Great Teachers Series

Beginning in 2005 the Center initiated the Great Teachers in Economics program designed to recognize the achievements of truly outstanding teachers of economics and to elevate the importance of teaching within the profession. This program, partially funded with a grant from the Earhart Foundation, brings some of the nations best teachers to FSU to conduct workshops and share ideas about how to become a better teacher.

Interviews that highlight various aspects of their teaching success are conducted with these outstanding teachers. Click below for text of the interviews with recent recipients of this recognition.

Cecil

Cecil Bohanon

Cecil Bohanon, Professor of Economics at Ball State University received his doctorate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1981. His fields of interest include public finance, public choice, and applied macroeconomics. Bohanon's research interests include economics of taxation and international poverty comparisons. » Read interview

Kenneth

Kenneth Elzinga

Ken Elzinga is probably the nation's most successful teacher of college-level economics. In addition to receiving numerous teaching awards, he has made introductory economics at the University of Virginia the most popular course sequence on campus. He is so highly respected that when the Southern Economic Association recently established a teaching award, they named it ... » Read interview

Daniel

Daniel Hamermesh

Daniel Hamermesh is the Edward Everett Hale Centennial Professor of Economics at the University of Texas -- Austin. The author of more than 70 scholarly articles, he is best known for his work in labor economics. His labor economics text, The Economics of Work and Pay, has been through various editions since 1984. His most recent book, Economics Is Everywhere ... » Read interview

Gail Mitchell

Gail Mitchell Hoyt

Gail Mitchell Hoyt is a Professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky. Prior to coming to Kentucky in 1994, she taught at the University of Richmond. She is the teaching assistant coordinator for principles courses, and directs the teacher training of graduate students in the Department of Economics. Gail has won various teaching awards including the University ... » Read interview

Dirk

Dirk Mateer

Dirk Mateer has been teaching college economics for more than 15 years and he is currently a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Undergraduate Studies Program in Economics at Penn State University where he regularly teaches large principles sections. His most recent project is a workbook entitled Economics in the ... » Read interview

John S.

John S. Morton

John S. Morton is widely recognized as a creative economic educator and innovative developer of ideas that bring economics alive in the classroom. He has 40 years experience as a high school teacher and economic educator. More than any other person, he is responsible for the inclusion of economics in the Advanced Placement program. He served on the College Board ... » Read interview

Martha

Martha Olney

Martha Olney is a member of the American Economic Association, Business History Conference, Cliometric Society, Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, Economic History Association, and the Social Science History Association. She currently serves on the board of the AEA's Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession and on the ... » Read interview

Michael

Michael Salemi

Michael Salemi is Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota–Minneapolis. Salemi is the author of more than forty published articles in macroeconomics, domestic and international monetary theory, and economic education. His recent projects deal with optimal monetary policy, ... » Read interview

Mark C.

Mark C. Schug

Mark C. Schug is Director of the Center for Economic Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. He is a Senior Fellow with the National Council on Economic Education. Professor Schug has taught for over 30 years at the middle school, high school, and university levels. A widely recognized scholar, he has written and ... » Read interview

William C.

William C. Wood

William C. Wood is currently professor of economics at James Madison University and the director of JMU’s Center for Economic Education. Wood received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia in 1980 and has held faculty positions at Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia and at Bridgewater College. Wood was the recipient of teaching awards ... » Read interview