Annual AP Economics Conference, 2015 Speakers
Michael Brody holds a Bachelor of Science in economics with a concentration in finance from the Wharton School, a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in education from Stanford University. He became a national board certified teacher in 2004. He serves as co-chair of the AP Microeconomics Development Committee and has taught workshops for AP economics teachers across the U.S., in China, and in the Middle East. Mr. Brody teaches history and economics and is the director of academic advising at Menlo School, Atherton, Calif.
Dr. Felix Kwan is professor of economics and finance at Maryville University in St. Louis where he teaches principles courses as well as business economics, international economics, money and banking, and corporate finance. He received his doctorate from Washington University. He has a master’s degree in industrial economics, and his undergraduate background is in chemical engineering.
Kwan has served as an AP reader for the College Board in the past seven years, the last two as table leader for AP macroeconomics. Kwan also serves on the Education Advisory Board for the St. Louis Fed. His current research is in the area of teaching and learning, with a focus on student engagement and learning assessment. He has served as reviewer for the last four editions of Economics Principles, Problems, and Policies by McConnell, Brue, and Flynn, and has updated its multiple choice and true/false test bank.
Michael Owyang is a research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He received his B.A. in Economics and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California–Berkeley in 1992. He also received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California–San Diego in 1996 and 2000, respectively. His principal research interests are time series econometrics, Markov switching, and Bayesian econometrics. Mr. Owyang joined the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in 2000.
Read more at Mike Owyang's website »
Peggy Pride served as the AP economics teacher at St. Louis University High School in St. Louis, Mo., from 1992 until her retirement in 2008. She earned her undergraduate degree in history and economics and her master's degree in business education at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Il.
Pride has served on the Test Development Committee for AP economics from 1999 through 2004 and was the Micro Question Leader at the annual reading for four years. She previously served as Table Leader. Pride has presented at Council for Economic Education (CEE), and at the annual AP conference. She travels the Midwest as an AP consultant and has written curriculum for College Board, CEE and Junior Achievement. She was the primary author of the College Board publication, "AP Economics Teacher's Guide" (2004). Pride was awarded the Global Association of Teachers of Economics' "Teacher of the Year" award in 2006. She now writes and edits curriculum for economics textbooks. She was the senior editor for the Teachers' Guide for "Explorations in Economics" (2012) and the Teacher's Guide for "Krugman's Economics for AP, 2nd Edition" (2015).
Arthur Raymond is professor of economics and finance at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., where he recently served as chair of the Accounting, Business, and Economics Department and now directs the Economics and Finance Program. He currently offers courses in international trade, econometrics, portfolio theory, and principles of economics. Raymond’s current professional activity focuses on economics education and testing, including serving as chief reader for AP economics from 2005-2008, and now as chief reader for AP macroeconomics. He also provides educational consulting services to the local community and speaks on testing and teaching economics at numerous conferences and workshops.
Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria is an economist in the Research Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Before joining the Bank in 2014, she was an assistant professor in the economics department at The Ohio State University.
Paulina was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She received Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in economics from Universidad de los Andes in 2004 and 2005, respectively. She received a doctorate in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2010.
Her areas of research and interest are international economics, applied and theoretical macroeconomics, and development economics. Her work has been published in the European Economic Review.
Read more at Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria's website »
Daniel Thornton is president of D.L. Thornton Economics LLC. He was vice president and economic adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis before retiring in August 2014. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in 1981, Dr. Thornton was an associate professor of economics at Central Michigan University. Thornton received his doctorate in economics from the University of Missouri, Columbia and a Master of Science degree in economics from Arizona State University. He has published widely in leading economics and finance journals such as, the Review of Economics and Statistics; the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; the Journal of Financial Economics; and the Review of Financial Studies. He is an associate editor of Applied Economics Letters and Applied Financial Economics; a research fellow at the Centre for Finance and Credit Markets; a member of the Central Bank Communication Network; and a member of the advisory board of the International Centre for Banking and Corporate Governance. He is also a member of the Board of the St. Louis Council on Economic Education and a trustee of the Missouri Council on Economic Education.
Guillaume Vandenbroucke is a senior economist in the Research Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He is also a lecturer in economics at Washington University in St. Louis.
Vandenbroucke received a doctorate in economics from the University of Rochester in 2004. Before joining the Bank in 2014, he was on the faculty of the economics departments at the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s department of economics.
One line of Vandenbroucke's research focuses on family economics, including the economic causes and consequences of fertility and marriage decisions. Another line of research focuses on education and its connection with income inequality between individuals and countries.
Read more at Guillaume Vandenbroucke's website »
