I was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii (also called Hawaii Island).  In 1989, I graduated from Konawaena High School (salutatorian) and subsequently moved to Honolulu, Oahu where I attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) where I was a Regent Scholar.  Although I began college with the intention of studying mathematics, I soon found that my true interest was in economics.  In 1993, I graduated (summa cum laude) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a B.A. in Economics.  The following fall, I started my graduate studies in Economics.  In 1996, I earned my M.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California (USC) and then my Ph.D. in Economics also from USC in December of 2002.

In the summer of 2023, I joined the Department of Economics in the Harriot College of Arts & Sciences at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC where I currently serve as the James E. and Constance Paul Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Economics Department. Prior to joining ECU, I was a faculty member in the Economics Department at Baylor University (2000-2023).

My disciplinary service includes serving on the American Economic Association's (AEA) Committee on Economic Education (AEA-CEE) (2009-2016, 2022-2023, 2024-present). I currently serve as AEA-CEE Chair (2024-present). As part of my AEA-CEE work, I have served on the program committee for the Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education (CTREE, 2011-2013, 2021-2022), chairing the program committee for the 2013 CTREE.  Also related to my AEA-CEE service and my economic education research, I am a facilitator for EDUCATE (Expanding Diversity in Undergraduate Classes with Advancements in (the) Teaching (of) Economics, 2021-present)) and, in the past, served as an instructor in the Teaching Innovations Program (TIP). My editorial work has included serving as an associate or co-editor for the Southern Economic Journal and the  Journal of Economic Education. I currently serve on the Editorial Board for the International Review of Economics Education. Additionally, I have served on the AP Macroeconomics Development Committee (2020-2024, Higher Education Co-chair 2021-2022).

My teaching has been recognized with the Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award from the Southern Economic Association (2016) and the Hankamer School of Business Teaching Excellence Award (2023) at Baylor University. In February 2022, I was honored to give one of the keynote addresses at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank’s annual Women in Economics Symposium and in July 2022, I gave the keynote address for the Australasian Teaching Economics Conference (ATEC). In November 2022, I worked with the economic education group of the Research Division at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank to develop economic education materials.

My greatest blessing and joy is my daughter, Sarah. When she is not away at college, I enjoy spending time with Sarah on one of our many “mommy & me” adventures. Sarah is a Manoa Excellence Scholar in the honors program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) where she is majoring in marine biology (with a focus on sharks) and minoring in economics. Sarah also interns in the Holland Shark Lab at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), volunteers as an aquarist assistant at the Waikiki Aquarium, and in alternating semesters works as a learning assistant in either an introductory biology or pre-calculus course at UHM.

I live in Greenville, NC and enjoy traveling the world.