The Best of All Worlds: Globalizing the Knowledge Economy
Julia Carter
Senior Economic Analyst

Explanation of Debate Activity
Sherry Kiser
Director of Economic Education

Globalization and Capital Flows: Lessons from South Texas
Keith Phillips
Senior Economist, San Antonio Branch

Global Inequality: On the One Hand and on the Other
Sherry Kiser
Director of Economic Education

Heather McDonald
Economic Education Specialist

Princeton Williams
Senior Economic Education Specialist

All speakers are from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas unless otherwise noted.

Speakers

Julia Carter
Senior Economic Analyst
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Carter provides research and analysis for the Dallas Fed’s president and its chief economist. She has contributed to their articles in leading publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and Investor’s Business Daily. In addition, she writes about national and global economic issues. A frequent public speaker, Carter presents on topics ranging from Eastern European economic conditions to U.S. productivity and living standards. A native of Ukraine, she came to the United States as a Freedom Support Act exchange student. She received an undergraduate degree in economics and mathematics from Birmingham-Southern College. She is currently pursuing graduate studies at Southern Methodist University.

Steve Cobb
Chairman, Department of Economics and
Director, Center for Economic Education
University of North Texas
Cobb joined the UNT faculty in 1986 and is completing his 11th year as chair of the department of economics. He also serves as director of UNT’s Center for Economic Education. Cobb’s research centers on international trade and economic development and economic education. He has been published in numerous journals and is coauthor of the textbook International Economics, now in its fifth edition. Cobb is a consultant and trainer for the National Council on Economic Education’s educational exchange program, helping more than 500 faculty members in the former Soviet Union teach economics from a market perspective. In 2005, the NCEE presented Cobb with the Albert Beekhuis Award for Centers of Excellence in Economic Education. In addition, he has received several teaching awards, including the Southern Economic Association’s Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005. He was president of the National Association of Economic Educators in 2000. He holds undergraduate degrees from Southwestern University and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Meredith Crowley
Senior Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Crowley is a senior economist in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She provides research and analysis on international trade and developments in the world economy. Her research on international trade, the World Trade Organization, special forms of import protection and technology adoption has been published in numerous journals, including the Journal of International Economics, European Journal of Political Economy and Economic Perspectives, the Chicago Fed’s quarterly research publication. Crowley received bachelor’s degrees in Asian studies and chemistry from Bowdoin College, a Master of Public Policy in international trade and finance from Harvard University, and master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Agustín del Río
Economist and Head of the Regional Delegation
Banco de México, Monterrey Branch
Del Río is the head of the regional delegation for Banco de México’s Monterrey Branch and is a part-time professor of economics at Tecnológico de Monterrey. He previously served as full-time professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey; economist in the Western Hemisphere department of the International Monetary Fund; chief economist of Vitro, a manufacturing conglomerate based in Monterrey; and head of research at the Center for Economic Policy. Del Río has a master’s degree in economics and a Ph.D. in econometrics and monetary theory and policy from the University of Missouri–Columbia.

William C. Gruben
Vice President and Senior Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
As a member of the Dallas Fed’s international macroeconomics group, Gruben focuses his research on international trade, international capital flows, currency regimes and banking, chiefly as these subjects apply to developing countries and particularly those of Latin America. He has published extensively on these topics in scholarly and technical journals. Gruben joined the Dallas Fed in 1982. He has been a research associate at the Institute for Latin American Studies and Center for Economic Development at the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught economics at Southern Methodist University and served on the international management studies faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. Gruben holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sherry Kiser
Director of Economic Education
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Kiser assumed her current position as the Dallas Fed’s director of economic education in 2003. Her work focuses on developing and implementing economic and personal finance education initiatives for the Eleventh Federal Reserve District. Her responsibilities at the Dallas Fed initially included analyzing international economic and political conditions, particularly in Latin America, as well as organizing international visits and conferences sponsored by the Center for Latin American Economics. Before joining the Dallas Fed in 1994, Kiser taught at the secondary, junior college and university levels. She also served as a social studies curriculum writer and instructional facilitator for Dallas Independent School District. She received a B.A. in Spanish and history from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.L.A. from Southern Methodist University.

Anil Kumar
Senior Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Kumar joined the Dallas Fed in 2004. His research focuses primarily on estimating behavioral effects of taxation and public and private pensions on labor supply and household saving. His recent research also includes tests of purchasing power parity and estimation of the labor market effects of trade. His articles have appeared or are forthcoming in such publications as Journal of Public Economics, Applied Economics Letters, Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, and the Dallas Fed’s Economic Letter and Southwest Economy. Before joining the Bank, Kumar worked in various positions in India’s civil service. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Delhi and a management degree from the University of Bombay. He earned an M.S. in applied statistics and a Ph.D. in economics from Syracuse University.

Anne Macy
Associate Professor of Finance
West Texas A&M University
In addition to teaching classes in finance and investments, Macy serves as director of the West Texas College of Business Investment Series, an outreach program for the local business community as well as West Texas A&M students. Macy has been published in numerous economics, business, finance and economic education journals and is committed to enhancing classroom instruction. She conducts teacher workshops for professional educational organizations and currently serves as an editorial board member for several publications, including Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research, Journal of the Academy of Business Education and Journal of Financial Education. Macy has a B.A. in economics from the University of South Dakota and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Texas Tech University.

Catherine L. Mann
Professor of International Economics and Finance
Brandeis University
Mann joined the faculty of Brandeis University’s International Business School after working more than 20 years in policy institutions and think tanks, including the Institute for International Economics, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, President’s Council of Economic Advisers and World Bank. Her current research focuses on two related topics: information technology and services trade in global markets, and the U.S. trade deficit and the dollar. On the former topic, Mann is the author of two books: Accelerating the Globalization of America: The Role for Information Technology (2006) and Global Electronic Commerce: A Policy Primer (2000). On the latter topic, she authored Is the U.S. Trade Deficit Sustainable? (1999). She has also published extensively on these topics in such journals as World Economy, Review of International Economics, Business Economics and Journal of Economic Perspectives. Mann has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Heather McDonald
Economic Education Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
McDonald joined the Dallas Fed in 2001 as an associate economist, providing research assistance for the Bank’s president and economists and serving as a contributing member of the Beige Book. In 2006, McDonald moved to the Bank’s economic education division. She speaks to students, educators and community groups on the purposes and functions of the Federal Reserve System as well as basic economic concepts. She conducts research on program and multimedia resource development and organizes logistical support for economic education events. Prior to joining the Fed, McDonald was a graduate teaching fellow at the University of North Texas. She holds a B.S. from Texas A&M University and an M.S. from the University of North Texas.

Nigel Nagarajan
Head, Economic and Financial Affairs
Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
Nagarajan is counselor and head of economic and financial affairs at the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States in Washington, D.C. Previously, he worked for the European Commission’s economic service in Brussels, specializing in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), exchange rates and international economic issues. He was contributing coeditor of the special report, EMU After Five Years, the first comprehensive analysis produced by the Commission of the single currency’s impact on the European economy. He is also the coauthor of a European Commission guide to evaluating European Union expenditure programs as well as a number of articles on international economic issues. Before joining the Commission, Nagarajan was an economist for the U.K. government and a financial analyst for Cable and Wireless plc. He studied philosophy, politics and economics at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, and holds a master’s degree in economics from Birkbeck College, University of London.

Keith Phillips
Senior Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, San Antonio Branch
Phillips joined the Dallas Fed in January 1984. His areas of concentration include regional economics and economic forecasting. Phillips developed business-cycle indexes for Texas and metro areas throughout the state, which he uses to analyze business conditions in those regions. He is a contributing member of the Western Blue Chip Economic Forecasting Group, where he has been the most accurate Texas forecaster for seven of the past 11 years. His research and analysis have been covered by CNN, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, USA Today, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and media throughout Texas. In 1996, Phillips transferred to the San Antonio Branch to expand the Dallas Fed’s regional economic coverage and better serve the needs of the South Texas community. Phillips teaches economics and statistics at Trinity, St. Mary’s and Incarnate Word universities. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Southern Methodist University and holds B.A. degrees in economics and journalism and an M.A. in economics from the University of Missouri–Columbia.

Tom Siems
Senior Economist and Policy Advisor
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Siems began his career with the Federal Reserve in 1984. He conducts economic and financial research to develop a comprehensive understanding of globalization, including how new ideas (technologies and policies) impact productivity and economic growth. He is also a senior lecturer in the engineering management, information and systems department in the School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University and an advisory board member of the Cato Institute’s Project on Social Security Choice. Siems has published more than 50 articles and is the only two-time winner of the National Association for Business Economics’ Edmund A. Mennis Contributed Paper Award, having won in 2005 for a paper on supply chain management and in 2006 for a coauthored paper on globalization’s invisible hand. Siems earned a B.S.E. in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in operations research from Southern Methodist University. In addition, he is a 1989 graduate of the Public Finance Institute at the University of Michigan and a 1991 alumnus of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado.

Princeton Williams
Senior Economic Education Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Williams joined the Dallas Fed as senior economic education specialist in 2006. Before coming to the Bank, he taught economics, A.P. macroeconomics and A.P. microeconomics at R. L. Paschal High School in Fort Worth. Williams was selected as the lead teacher for A.P. economics for the Fort Worth Independent School District. As part of his district academic responsibilities, he mentored new economics teachers, conducted citywide review sessions for A.P. students, coauthored the district’s economics curriculum and facilitated district professional development activities. Williams interned in the economic and market analysis division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during his graduate studies. He is a member of the Global Association of Teachers of Economics, Texas Council for the Social Studies and National Council for the Social Studies. Williams received a B.B.A. from Southern Methodist University and an M.A. in economics from the University of Texas at Arlington.