Meghan Millea

Meghan Millea enjoys being a professor—the teaching, the research, the students, and the opportunity to work with interesting people on difficult problems. Much of her career has been spent in North Carolina; she is interested in using economics to understand issues that matter to people and communities here.

Her work crosses academic boundaries, bringing together economists, engineers, social scientists, students, and community partners. These areas often overlap—students participate in research, community needs shape research questions, and lessons projects and partnerships make their way back into the classroom.

Education

B.A. in Economics and Mathematics, Western Kentucky University
Ph.D. in Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Specialization in Teaching

Millea approaches the classroom as a community of scholars, where students learn with and from one another. Through active lessons, in-class work, discussion, and real-world applications, she helps students build the foundation they need to use economics beyond a single course—in their other coursework, their decision-making, and their future careers.

Her teaching emphasizes sustained attention, practice, and application. Students learn economics by working with it: asking questions, solving problems, applying concepts to new situations, and returning to ideas as their understanding develops. The goal is to learn sufficient content and curiosity to continue to develop and apply economics well beyond the classroom experience.

Research Interests

Hurricanes, Eastern North Carolina, Insurance, Higher Education Finance, Educational Outreach and Investment
Dr. Millea is an applied economist interested in how people make decisions when choices are uncertain and consequential. Much of her current research focuses on hurricanes: how households prepare, what happens financially after a storm, why some households recover faster than others, and how insurance, public policies, and markets influence outcomes. More specifically, this work links household decision-making, risk preferences, disaster insurance, mitigation, and new approaches such as parametric insurance. Her interdisciplinary research combines economics with engineering, social sciences, and community engagement.

She is also intrigued by higher education finance, funding, investments, short- and long-term consequential decision making, planning under uncertainty, and applying economic analysis to higher education practice.

Professional Service

Dr. Millea's professional service includes university governance, the economics profession, and applied work with communities. She has held leadership roles in faculty governance and university planning. She has conducted economic impact analyses and other applied economic work to support community and organizational decision making. Much of these projects have stemmed from community and professional relationships developed through her research.

Community Engagement

Dr. Millea’s community engagement centers on bridges academic research with impacted communities to co-create knowledge. Through a residential research program, students engage with community leaders, local governments, and practitioners to bring local knowledge, expertise, priorities, and contexts into the research process. These collaborations enhance academic research with experiences and help to translate research into useful applications that are useful and practical. Student involvement is key to building the academic-community bridge; students get experience with applied research while creating a stronger connection between university work and the communities it serves.