Economics External Advisory Board
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The Economics External Advisory Board launched in fall 2020 with eleven SIU alumni from both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Members represent a diverse group of experiences and have pursued successful careers in academia, banking, business consulting and forecasting, education, and law among others. They provide great examples showcasing the versatility of an Economics degree. Several hail from Illinois but others live outside the U.S. bringing global perspectives to the Economics programs.
The Board meets once a semester, making suggestions for student recruitment, the economics curriculum, student services outside the classroom, and success after SIU. Members also volunteer their time and expertise at student events, including offering advice to those soon embarking on their own careers.
Shane Carsrud
Assistant Market Executive
Banterra Bank
Peter Crockett
Vice President and Actuary (Retired)
Combined Insurance Co. of America
Elgin, Illinois
Dan Giedeman
Professor of Economics
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, Michigan
Daniel Giedeman is a Professor of Economics in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University. Professor Giedeman studied economics and history as an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University. He also earned a master’s degree in economics at SIU before earning his Ph.D. in economics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2001. He is a member of several economic organizations including the American Economic Association and is currently the co-editor of the academic journal Essays in Economic & Business History.
Professor Giedeman is the author of more than twenty-five published research articles on subjects including financial development, the determinants of long-run economic growth, economic inequality, and economic history. He also has an interest in comparing the economic systems of different nations and has been a visiting professor at the University of Konstanz and at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
Christina Houseworth
Principal and Senior Economist
Economic Consulting Group
Geneva, New York
Dr. Houseworth’s research primarily focuses on issues related to marriage, wages and employment, immigration, and the military. She has published in Armed Forces and Society, the Journal of Economic Inequality, the Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, Labour, Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, and Review of Economics of the Household.
Lane Hudgins
Editor
The Forecast – A Newsletter of the National Association of Forensic Economics
Carbondale, Illinois
Originally from western Canada, Lane completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a specialization in finance from the University of British Columbia (1991) and has found this background invaluable in her work as a consulting economist. Based on this experience she feels the recent inclusion of Economics in the SIUC College of Business and Analytics will offer substantial benefits to its students.
Owing to the great opportunities she had and the wonderful friendships she made as an SIUC student, Lane is strong supporter of all things SIU. She has been a long time member of the WSIU Friends Board and Friends of McLeod Summer Playhouse and is a past president of both of these boards. Lane and her husband Joe and their three (mostly grown) boys have spent many hot summers looking forward to southern Illinois’ beautiful fall weather and tailgating with family and friends at SIU football games. She is excited about being part of the Economics External Advisory Board and looks forward to assisting the Economics program and the university as it moves forward.
Reina Irene Mejia Chacón
Executive Vice President
Inter-American Development Bank
Honduras, Nicaragua
Among several roles prior to her appointment as CEO, Ms. Mejía served as Institutional Clients Group Director for Honduras and Nicaragua as well as Corporate Business and Public Sector Head. During her tenure at Citibank, she was a central actor in all major corporate transactions, supporting all clients. Ms. Mejía also served as President of the Honduran American Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA) in the years before joining the IDB. Among positions in her early career, she was General Manager of FUNDES Honduras, a consultancy firm specializing in the development of MSMEs.
In addition, Ms. Mejía has held Board positions or senior roles at several other financial and educational institutions in Honduras and has been active in a range of women’s business-leadership initiatives. She also founded and worked for more than a decade as treasurer of the Honduras chapter of Operation Smile, which has helped more than 5,000 children by providing surgeries to correct cleft lip and palate.
Strategy and Business magazine named Ms. Mejía one of the most influential women in the region in 2017, 2018 and 2019, as did Forbes Central America in 2018.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA from Southern Illinois University.
Chad Moutray
Chief Economist
National Association of Manufacturers
Prior to joining the NAM, Dr. Moutray was the chief economist and director of economic research for the Office of Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from 2002 to 2010. In that role, he was responsible for researching the importance of entrepreneurship to the U.S. economy and highlighting various issues of importance to small business owners, policymakers and academics. In addition to discussing economic and policy trends, his personal research focused on the importance of educational attainment to both self-employment and economic growth.
Prior to working at the SBA, Mr. Moutray was the dean of the School of Business Administration at Robert Morris College in Chicago, Illinois (now Robert Morris University of Illinois). Under his leadership, the business school had rapid growth, both adding new programs and new campuses. He began the development of an M.B.A. program that began accepting students after his departure and created a business institute for students to work with local businesses on classroom projects and internships.
Sam Nwosu
Management Consultant and Chief Executive Officer
Secured Records Management Solutions Ltd.
Kavitha Sitaram
American Swedish Institute
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Matthew Taitt
Director of Admissions
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, Missouri
Matthew earned a B.A. degree in Economics from SIU in 2003. Upon graduation, he worked in the tourism industry teaching SCUBA diving until he returned to Carbondale in 2005. Matthew completed his MPA at SIU in 2011.
Scott Walker
Attorney
Barton Walker, LLC
Marion, Illinois
In 2011, Scott earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Economics from Southern Illinois University through the University Honors Program. He then went on to earn his Juris Doctorate from the SIU School of Law in 2016. After earning his Juris Doctorate, Attorney Walker honed his litigation & mediation skills as a legal clerk, paralegal, and attorney with a nationally recognized law firm, in Marion, Illinois. He also worked with major nationwide litigation counsel in the field of Qui Tam – “Whistleblower” law, and coordinated with other nationwide counsel on the 3M Earplug litigation, protecting the rights of his fellow soldiers and veterans when it was discovered that 3M was alleged to have sold defective earplugs to the Department of Defense.
Scott is admitted to practice law in Illinois and in the federal court for the Southern District of Illinois and brings his diverse background of personal and professional experience to his practice of law. He focuses his practice on corporation & business formation, contract development and litigation, compliance monitoring and litigation, municipal law, anti-trust law, national False Claims Act “Qui Tam” litigation – national mass tort litigation, agri-business, trust and estates, real estate transactions and litigation, wrongful death, and personal injury. He now operates his own law firm, Barton Walker, LLC, founded with his partner and fellow SIU School of Law Alum William Barton, which operates law offices in St. Louis metro-east and the SIUC research park in Carbondale, Illinois. Scott continues his record of service through Barton Walker, LLC, which proudly accepts roles with national charities, such as in-house counsel for This Able Veteran. Scott Walker is honored to continue this record by proudly serving on the SIUC Economics External Advisory Board.