About the St. Louis Fed’s Economic Education Program
Resources by educators, for educators.
The Economic Education team at the St. Louis Fed uses its vast experience in the classroom and the latest research in education to provide educators of all grades with high-quality economics and personal finance teaching resources, an online learning platform, trainings, and other professional development opportunities!
For questions about the acceptable use of St. Louis Fed education resources, view permitted use. For other questions, reach us at EconomicEducation@stls.frb.org.
Learn more about the team below and check out their latest research! And, please keep in touch: subscribe to our newsletters and alerts so you never miss new resources.
Scott Wolla
Economic Education Officer
Scott.A.Wolla@stls.frb.org
Scott’s favorites
Wolla is an award-winning economic educator with 14 years of classroom teaching experience. He has published articles in journals such as Journal of Economic Education, The American Economist, and Journal of Economics Teaching. His work has been cited by major media outlets including The New York Times, National Public Radio, and The Economist. Scott teaches economics as an adjunct at Washington University in St. Louis.
Education: Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction, Saint Louis University; M.A., Economic Education, University of Delaware; M.S., Teacher Education, Bemidji State University; B.S., Social Studies Education, Minnesota State University-Moorhead
Featured works:
- Cognitive Science Teaching Strategies and Literacy-targeted Economics Complementarities (with William Goffe), Journal of Economic Education, 2024
- How Are Banks and the Fed Linked? Teaching Key Concepts Today (with Jane Ihrig and Gretchen Weinbach), Review of Political Economy, 2023
- Let’s Close the Gap: Updating the Textbook Treatment of Monetary Policy (with Jane Ihrig), Journal of Economic Education, 2022
- Teaching Monetary Policy with Ample Reserves (with Jane Ihrig), Journal of Economics Teaching, 2023
- View additional works in Wolla’s CV (PDF)
Jeannette Bennett
Senior Economic Education Specialist
(Memphis Branch)
901-734-8011 | Jeannette.N.Bennett@stls.frb.org
Jeannette’s favorites
Bennett writes, designs, develops, and presents economic and personal finance curricula and resources for a variety of audiences. Prior to joining the Fed, she had an extensive career in public education as a teacher, school administrator, adjunct professor, and curriculum consultant and designer. Her excellence in economic education has been recognized with national awards for her own teaching and published curricula and with national awards for teachers under her guidance as an administrator.
Education: M.S.E., Education Administration; M.S.E., Instructional Leadership/Curriculum and Instruction; and B.S.E., Education and Economic Education, Arkansas State University
Featured works:
- Credit Cards: The Trillion-Dollar Debt, Page One Economics, St. Louis Fed, December 2023
- Beyond Inflation Numbers: Shrinkflation and Skimpflation, Page One Economics, December 2022
- A Dollar’s Worth: Inflation Is Real, Page One Economics, December 2021
- Your Social Security Number: The 9-Digit Evolution, Page One Economics, January 2020
- Unemployment Insurance: A Tried and True Safety Net, Page One Economics, December 2020
Andrea Caceres-Santamaria
Senior Economic Education Specialist
Andrea.Caceres-Santamaria@stls.frb.org
Andrea’s favorites
Caceres-Santamaria contributes to the ever-growing award-winning collection of effective resources for teachers. Prior to joining the Fed, she worked as a high school economics teacher in Palm Beach County, Fla. She also worked as a master teacher at the Florida Atlantic University Center for Economic Education. She has over 10 years of experience developing economics and personal finance curriculum for grades K-12.
Education: M.A., Economics and Entrepreneurship Education, University of Delaware; B.A., Secondary Social Science Education, Florida Atlantic University
Featured work:
- Sneak-a-nomics Podcast: Why Economics Lessons Engage Struggling Students, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- Why Are We So Impatient? A Look into Money and Delayed Gratification, Page One Economics, St. Louis Fed, April 2023
- Saving the Environment with Economic Ideas, Lesson 6: Green Is the New Gold, St. Louis Fed, 2019
Megan Cruz
Research Officer
Megan.Cruz@stls.frb.org
Cruz leads our Native Economic and Financial Education Empowerment (NEFEE) program. In her role, she focuses on working with tribal nations and Native communities across the United States on implementing economic and personal finance education programs to support economic and financial well-being. NEFEE conducts research, in partnership with Native communities, to address barriers to financial capability and inclusion. She originally joined the Fed with the San Francisco Reserve Bank and has assumed a variety of roles including in credit risk management, currency operations and security. Cruz began her career at Merrill Lynch in investment banking, where she assisted tribal nations and their enterprises in raising more than $1 billion in financing for their gaming and reservation infrastructure projects. She is a member of the Osage Nation.
Education: B.S., Economics, Oklahoma State University
Featured works:
- Beyond the Hype: An Introduction to Crypto Assets, Page One Economics, St. Louis Fed, July 2022
Amanda Geiger
Senior Economic Education Specialist
Amanda.Geiger@stls.frb.org
Amanda’s favorites
Before joining the St. Louis Fed, Geiger was a Florida public high school teacher for over 12 years. She has also served as a reader and table leader for the College Board AP Macroeconomics exam. She was recognized with a Regional Economic Educator and Leadership Award by the Florida Council on Economic Education and by her school site as a teacher of the year.
Education: M.A., Economics and Entrepreneurship Education, University of Delaware; B.A., Social Science Education, Florida State University
Featured works:
- AP Macro Lecture Guide: How the Fed Implements Monetary Policy, St. Louis Fed, 2024
- What Should College Athletes Be Paid? Market Structure and the NCAA, Page One Economics, St. Louis Fed, July 2023
- No Scarcity of Resources Webinar Series (with Mike Kaiman and Andrea Caceres-Santamaria), St. Louis Fed, 2023
- The Wedding of Ms. Supply and Mr. Demand (with Heather Tirino), EconEdLink, Council for Economic Education, 2021
Mike Kaiman
Senior Economic Education Specialist
Mike.Kaiman@stls.frb.org
Mike’s favorites
Kaiman develops and promotes educational materials that focus on increasing students’ economic and financial knowledge, with a special interest in data literacy and primary document analysis. Prior to joining the St. Louis Fed in 2023, he was a social studies educator for 20 years, having taught AP economics, U.S. history and popular culture in the 20th century.
Education: M.A., History, University of Missouri-St. Louis; B.A., History, University of Missouri-Columbia
Featured works:
- General Economics Course Entrance and Exit Tickets, St. Louis Fed
- Externalities, St. Louis Fed
- A Cotton Tale: The United States’ First Industrial Revolution, St. Louis Fed
- Removing the “Punch Bowl”: Inflation and the Federal Reserve’s Use of Contractionary Monetary Policy, St. Louis Fed
- Everything Including the Kitchen Sink Lesson for Grades 10-12, St. Louis Fed
Andria Matzenbacher
Economic Education Coordinator
Andria.L.Matzenbacher@stls.frb.org
Andria’s favorites
Matzenbacher works with our team of economic education specialists to provide Econ Lowdown, an online teacher portal housing over 600 resources for economics and personal finance classrooms. She ensures that online resources are engaging, interactive, and instructionally sound. Her goal is to help teachers do their job more efficiently and provide them with tools they can use to help students learn financial literacy and economics. Prior to joining the St. Louis Fed, she taught middle school science for 10 years.
Education: M.S., Education, Instructional Design and Learning Technologies and B.S., Elementary Education, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
Featured works:
- Click Teach Engage: Using Ready-made Syllabuses in Econ Lowdown® (with Amanda Geiger), National Financial Literacy & Economic Education Conference, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., September 2023
- Fiscal Policy: The Basics of Taxation and Government Spending (with Kris Bertelsen and Mary Suiter), St. Louis Fed, 2021
- Fiscal Policy: Tools for Influencing the Economy (with Kris Bertelsen and Mary Suiter), St. Louis Fed, 2021
- Using Econ Lowdown to Explore Economics in the Elementary Classroom (with Eva Johnston), National Financial Literacy & Economic Education Virtual Conference, October 2020
Kelly Oliva
Instructional Designer
Kelly.Oliva@stls.frb.org
Oliva is an Instructional Designer on the Economic Education team at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In her role, she collaborates with economic education specialists to create varied learning experiences that help students make sense of personal finance and the economy. Oliva started her career as a high school English teacher and spent fifteen years serving as a school library media specialist. Before joining the Fed, she worked as a Learning and Development Specialist for Dierbergs Markets.
Education: M.A. Certificate Professional and Technical Writing, Murray State University; M.A. Library and Information Science, University of Missouri-Columbia; B.A. English, Lindenwood University
Cameron Tucker
Economic Education Analyst
Cameron.Tucker@stls.frb.org
Cameron’s favorites
Before joining the St. Louis Fed full-time, Tucker worked as our economic education intern throughout college and graduate school and as a tutor in economics and business classes for student athletes at Saint Louis University.
Education: B.S., Economics and M.S. Applied Financial Economics, Saint Louis University
Featured work:
- Is College Still Worth the High Price? Weighing Costs and Benefits of Investing in Human Capital (with Scott Wolla and Guillaume Vandenbroucke), Page One Economics, St. Louis Fed, September 2023