Lecture Series

Dr. Beth Akers

Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

"The Economics of Higher Education"

Elizabeth "Beth" Akers is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she focuses on the economics of higher education. Before joining AEI, she worked as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a visiting research scholar at the Federal Reserve Board, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.

Dr. Akers has a PhD in economics from Columbia University and a BS in mathematics and economics from the State University of New York at Albany. 

She is the author of Making College Pay: An Economist Explains How to Make a Smart Bet on Higher Education. She is also the coauthor of Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt. 

In addition to testifying before Congress, her writing and research have been published in many news publications including Bloomberg Opinion, the Boston Globe, Education Next, New York Daily News, New York Post, Newsweek, Quartz, Time, the Hill, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and USA Today. 

Her broadcast appearances include ABC News, Bloomberg Television, C-SPAN, and CNBC.

Joshua Hall

Milan Puskar Dean & Professor of Economics,
John Chambers College of Business & Economics,
West Virginia University

"Economic Freedom: Trade-Offs, Free Lunches or
Something in Between?"

Joshua Hall is Milan Puskar Dean and Professor of Economics in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University.

He was the 2019-20 Benne Distinguished Scholar in Behavioral and Social Sciences at WVU and holds a bachelor’s and master’s in economics from Ohio University.  He earned a Ph.D. from WVU in 2007. Prior to returning to WVU, he was the Elbert H. Neese, Jr. Professor of Economics at Beloit College.

He serves as editor of the Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited 17 books.

2022 - 2023 

Arthur B. Laffer, Founder and Chairman of Laffer Associates, Distinguished Reagan Economist, Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient 

Michael C. Munger, Director of the PPE Certificate Program and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Duke University

John Fagan, CEO of Financial Empowerment Partners, Prior Director of the U.S. Treasury's Markets Room

2021 - 2022

James R. Harrigan, Senior Research Fellow at American Institute for Economic Research, Co-Host of the "Words & Numbers" podcast

Antony Davies, Associate professor of Economics at Duquesne University, Co-Host of the "Words and Numbers" podcast

2019 - 2020

John B. Taylor, Creator of the interest rate forecasting tool known as "The Taylor Rule", Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, Senior Fellow of Economics at the Hoover Institution

2018 - 2019

Benjamin Powell, Director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University

Aaron Beam, First CFO at Healthsouth Corp involved in Healthsouth fraud.