I am a Professor of Economics here at CSU and am currently the Director of Graduate Studies in the Economics Department.  In addition, I hold a courtesy faculty appointment with the Colorado School of Public Health and affiliation as a research associate with the Regional Economic Development Institute (REDI@CSU).  I serve as the Agricultural Economics Advisor for the High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (HICAHS). I am active in professional organizations including being President-elect of the Association for Social Economics (until January 2027 when I will transition to President). I received my Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University in 2007, M.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 2004, and B.A. in Economics from Johns Hopkins University in 2001. I often teach Public Economics and Microeconomics of Development at the graduate level, as well as undergraduate Intermediate Microeconomics, Introduction to Econometrics, Economics of Public Finance, Development Economics, and occasionally a Senior Seminar on Local Economic Policy/Cost-Benefit Analysis. In the past, I also taught Principles of Microeconomics and Ph.D.-level Microeconomic Theory.

Research Statement:

My research spans labor, development, immigration, inequality, agricultural economics, and public policy, with a longstanding emphasis on how social structures shape economic opportunity and well-being. My current work centers on two complementary areas that have each become passion projects at this point in my career. The first brings economic theory and empirical methods to the study of agricultural worker health and safety, including the economic consequences of workplace risks, employer responses to regulation and environmental change, and the costs and benefits of interventions designed to protect workers. This links to my past research on agricultural labor markets more broadly and to my current work with HICAHS.

The second area focuses on stratification economics, including the development of global stratification economics as a framework for understanding how group-based inequalities are produced and sustained across different historical and national contexts. I am one of three founding editors of the Journal of Stratification Economics, a new academic journal launching in 2027 that will provide a dedicated forum for scholarship advancing this growing field.

Finally, I have been dabbling recently in the economics of homelessness and in Catholic Social Thought applied to economics.

Teaching Philosophy:

My teaching philosophy has revolved around the idea that the art in teaching economics lies in the ability to relate the subject to the experiences of students. Teaching students why economics matters to their lives changes their understanding of the world around them. My view is that this not only ensures a next generation of economists to extend the field, but also can result in positive externalities such as changes in students' compassion for the poor, ethics in business, and personal responsibility for household finances. The best economics classes therefore in my opinion elucidate supply and demand relationships and engage students mathematically, analytically, intuitively, and verbally while encouraging informed citizenship and decision-making. This is relevant at the undergraduate and graduate (through Ph.D.) levels.