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Regional Economic Updates

Virtual Summer Professional Development for Educators

June 22–Aug. 14, 2020 | Online

In this series of videos, educators will learn about what is current in the regional economy with updates from Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio.

DFW Economic Update (36:57)

El Paso Economic Update (51:58)

San Antonio Economic Update (36:59)

Houston Economic Update (51:38)

About the Speakers

Morgan Ackley

Ackley is an economic education advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. In her role, she supports educators across the Eleventh District with professional development trainings and writes curriculum for educators in the areas of economics, finance, and college and career education. Ackley started her career in Woodinville, Washington, as a high school teacher and college and career counselor. She taught classes in AP microeconomics, AP macroeconomics, business, marketing and finance. Prior to joining the Dallas Fed, Ackley was a teacher in the Frisco Independent School District. Ackley holds a masters in economics and entrepreneurship education from the University of Delaware.

Susan Kizer

Kizer is a senior outreach advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Her work focuses on outreach to organizations and individuals within the Eleventh District, concentrating on professional development for educators. Innovative programs including Freedom Riders, Student Board of Directors, History through an Economic Lens, and 100 Teens have been the hallmark of her work at the Fed. Responding to educator and student needs, Kizer coauthored Navigate: Exploring College and Careers, The Federal Reserve, Everyday Economics and a scope and sequence for the Texas Personal Financial Literacy Social Studies course. She has served as the ExxonMobil Executive in Residence at Lamar University, providing important economic information on monetary policy and the role of the central bank. Presentations for the Texas Council for the Social Studies and National Council for the Social Studies have included the gold standard, energy, globalization, immigration and financial literacy. She serves on the boards of the Texas Council for Economic Education, Texas Jump Start and also on the Texas State CTE Advisory Board.

Laila Assaine

Laila Assanie is a senior business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. As a member of the Research Department’s regional group, she conducts research on regional economic issues, produces articles for various bank publications and contributes to the Dallas Fed’s website. Her other responsibilities include briefing the Bank’s president on regional economic conditions, coordinating the production of various economic updates and indicators for the Dallas Fed website and writing the Eleventh District Beige Book—the Bank’s survey of regional economic conditions.

Assanie holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and a masters in economics and finance from the London School of Economics.

Roberto Coronado

Coronado is a senior vice president and senior economist at the El Paso Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. As a member of the regional group of the Bank’s Research Department, he provides regional input into the Dallas Fed’s monetary policy process and is responsible for monitoring and tracking economic and business activity in West Texas and Southern New Mexico. His research focuses on issues pertaining to the Mexican economy, U.S.–Mexico economic integration and border issues. Coronado has written articles for various Federal Reserve publications and academic journals in both the United States and Mexico.

Coronado serves as a director for the Texas Lyceum, and as a board member for Texas 2036, El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence, El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Workforce Solutions Borderplex.

He obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Houston and holds a BBA in accounting and economics and an MS in economics from University of Texas at El Paso.

Keith Phillips

Phillips is an assistant vice president and senior economist at the San Antonio Branch at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. His areas of concentration include regional economics and economic forecasting. Research Papers in Economics, which tracks publications in economics, ranks Phillips in the top five percent of economists across the world in terms of the number of distinct publications. Over the past sixteen years he has been the most accurate forecaster for Texas job growth in the Western Blue Chip Economic Forecast.

In August 1996, Phillips was transferred to the San Antonio Branch in an effort to improve the regional economic coverage of the Dallas office and to better serve the needs of the South Texas community. He teaches courses in managerial economics and quantitative analysis in the executive MBA program at UTSA. He obtained his PhD in economics from Southern Methodist University and holds a BA and MA in economics and a bachelor of journalism degree in news/editorial from the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Jesse Thompson

Jesse Thompson serves as senior business economist at the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where performs research and analysis on issues affecting the Houston and Gulf Coast economy. In particular, he studies issues surrounding area hydrocarbon industries. He also collects information for the Dallas Fed’s Beige Book summary of current economic conditions. He is author of the monthly Energy Indicators, the Houston Economic Indicators, and contributes to the quarterly publication Southwest Economy.

Thompson earned an MA in economics, with emphasis on empirical microeconomics, and BA in philosophy and economics from the University of Houston.