Biographical Information on Project Director and Staff of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education and Consultants for The Study
Biographical Information
Project Director – The Study
Stanley P. Mengel, President & CEO, Missouri Council on Economic Education
Stan Mengel graduated with General and Departmental Honors in both economics and Political Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He did his graduate work in Economics at Stanford University where he was a Woodrow Wilson and a Stanford-Wilson Fellow. Following graduate school, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, before becoming President of the Ohio Council on Economic Education. Later he was appointed Holder of the Firestone Chair in Economic Education and Director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Akron. Following this came the position of Pietz Professor of Economic Education and Director of the National Center on Economic Education for Children at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mengel then started his own business, Economic Communication Systems, in Akron, Ohio, and later joined Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance where he served a local agency as Vice President for Training. While with Northwestern he earned the CLU and ChFC designations from Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Moving to Missouri, he became Manager of Public Affairs for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City where he carried responsibilities that included economic education programs for the seven states of the Federal Reserve’s Tenth District. He was selected as Executive Director of the Missouri Council on Economic Education in January, 1997.
Sarapage McCorkle, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education, Assistant Professor of Economics – University of Missouri-St. Louis
Professor McCorkle's primary area of interest is economic education. As Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education, she develops and coordinates credit courses and noncredit programs in economics designed for elementary and secondary educators. She is the co-author of a textbook, Economics for the Elementary Classroom, and numerous other curricula, including Zooconomy, Zooconomy II, The Voyages of Columbus: An Economic Enterprise, Kaleidoscope USA, Arts Mart, Focus: High School Economics, Master Curriculum Guide in Economics: Teaching Strategies 5-6, Economics at Work, Focus: Economic Systems, Money Math: Lessons for Life, and Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life. She also wrote the teacher’s guide to accompany Taxes in U.S. History, a publication of the Internal Revenue Service.
Professor McCorkle has twice received the Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education. She has served as president of the National Association of Economic Educators. She teaches courses in microeconomics and specially designed courses for teachers.
Dr. McCorkle has earned a B.S. Ed, M.A. in Economics, and Ed.D.
Mary C. Suiter, Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education, Lecturer in Economics – University of Missouri-St. Louis
Ms. Suiter’s primary area of interest is economic education. As the Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education, she develops and coordinates credit courses and noncredit programs in economics designed for elementary and secondary educators. She is the author of The Louisiana Expansion and Financial Fitness for Life: Steps to Financial Fitness and the co-author of numerous other curricula, including Zooconomy II, The Voyages of Columbus: An Economic Enterprise, Kaleidoscope USA, Economics and Children’s Literature, Economics and Children’s Literature: 1994 Supplement, Economics and Children’s Literature: Second Supplement, Personal Finance and Children’s Literature, Arts Mart, Focus: Middle School Economics, Economics at Work, Money Math: Lessons for Life, The Economics of Our Diverse Society and Mathematics & Economics: Connections for Life. She also wrote lessons for the Illinois State Treasurer’s Bank-at-School Program and co-authored Connecting the Pieces: Building a Better Economics Lesson.
Ms. Suiter served as president of the National Association of Economic Educators. She teaches especially designed courses for teachers and is a certified Mini-Society® trainer. Ms. Suiter has earned a B.S. in Economics and a Masters of Instruction in Economic Education.
Barbara Flowers holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, a Masters degree in economic education from the University of Delaware, and a Masters degree in economics from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She has worked as the assistant director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis for more than ten years. Ms. Flowers teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses, primarily in economic education.
Her main interests are entrepreneurship and school-to-work. She manages the American Dream Youthpreneurship Program, an extensive program in high school-level entrepreneurship education consisting of a graduate teachers’ course, an on-campus student seminar, and a student business competition.
Ms. Flowers has co-authored several publications in the areas of economics, personal finance, entrepreneurship, local government. Selected publications include: Economics at Work, a high school economics curriculum; Shaping Up your Financial Future, the middle school unit in the Financial Fitness for Life curriculum; Local Government CECH-UP, a middle school curriculum; Labor Works for You, a primary grade career curriculum; and Starting a Business in Missouri, a curriculum for adults. She is currently developing The Artist as Entrepreneur, a high school curriculum.
Dr. William B. Walstad is the John T. and Mable M. Hay Professor of Economics and Director of the National Center for Research in Economic Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1978 from the University of Minnesota and then served on the economics faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He joined the economics faculty at Nebraska in 1982.
Professor Walstad is the Chair of the American Economic Association’s Committee on Economic Education, on which he served as a member from 1986–1993. Since 1992, he has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Education. In 2002, Dr. Walstad received the International Award from the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) and National Association of Economic Educators (NAEE). In 1993, he received a Leavey Award from the Freedom's Foundation for his economics instruction in Russia. In 1988, he received the Henry H. Villard Research Award from the NCEE and NAEE. He was the 1985-1986 president of the National Association of Economic Educators.
Dr. Walstad is the author of several hundred scholarly works in economic education. He is editor, co-editor, or author of many books. One of his recent books is Reforming Economics and Economics Teaching in the Transition Economies (Elgar 2002) and another is Teaching Undergraduate Economics: A Handbook for Instructors (Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 1998). His other books include The “E” Generation: Prepared for the Entrepreneurial Economy? (Kendall/Hunt, 2000); Seeds of Success: Entrepreneurship and Youth (Kendall/Hunt, 1999); Secondary Economics and Business Education (EBEA, 1996); An International Perspective on Economic Education (Kluwer, 1994); Effective Economic Education in the Schools (National Education Association, 1991); and, Econometric Modeling in Economic Education Research (Kluwer, 1987). He is author of the Study Guide and Test Bank II and Test Bank III for the McConnell and Brue principles of economics textbook, soon to be published in its 15th edition (Irwin/McGraw-Hill). His research articles can be found in the Journal of Economic Education, American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Economic Literature, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, Journal of Private Enterprise, Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Business Education, Social Education, and other scholarly journals.
Dr. Walstad has conducted several national assessments of economic understanding. He recently revised the nationally-normed and standardized Test of Economic Literacy (2000). He prepared a national report on American economic literacy with The Gallup Organization (1992). He directed national projects to develop the Test of Economic Knowledge for middle schools (1987), and the Basic Economics Test for elementary schools (1990). He served on the technical advisory committee to develop the framework for the 2006 National Assessment of Education Progress in economics.
Dr. Walstad served as a project evaluator or consultant for many organizations. He performed work for the U.S. Information Agency, the Educational Testing Service, American Research Institutes, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Kauffman Foundation, The Gallup Organization, the National Council on Economic Education, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Kazanjian Foundation, Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City and St. Louis, the Agency for Instructional Technology, the State of Indiana, the University of Kansas, the University of Delaware, Purdue University, and economic education councils in Georgia, Indiana, Kansas and Minnesota.
Joanne R. Dempsey (B.A., Elem. Educ., Elmhurst College; M.A., Sec. Educ./Econ., Bradley University) is President and Executive Director of the Illinois Council on Economic Education, a division of University Outreach at Northern Illinois University and an affiliate of the National Council on Economic Education. A national and state leader in economic education for over 27 years, Dempsey was the recipient of the Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education in 1992 and the NAEE Bessie Moore Service Award in 2000. Prior to coming to the Council in 1995, Dempsey served as Associate Director of the Center for Economic Education at Bradley University (1981-1995) and as Assistant Director of the Center for Economic Education at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (1977-1981). She also served for several years as Program Director for the Illinois Economic Education for Clergy Conference.
Dempsey is currently President of the National Association of Economic Educators and serves on the Board of the Illinois Institute for Entrepreneurship Education. She has served as a consultant to the Illinois State Board of Education in the development of learning standards; as a consultant to the Council of Chief State School Officers on standards benchmarking; the Charles F. Kettering Foundation on community involvement in public policy; and has been active in economic education internationally through the National Council on Economic Education’s EconomicsInternational program. She has authored curriculum materials for economics and personal finance education, as well as a handbook for economic education centers.
As a consultant to the Council of Chief State School Officers, Dempsey facilitated the review of economics and personal finance standards for the states of Delaware, New Jersey, Oregon, and West Virginia. This extensive process assisted states in assessing and improving their standards to meet national guidelines for quality learning standards.
Dempsey currently serves on the following Boards/Committees:
· Chair, NAEE Professional Development Seminars for New Center Directors (Levels 1 & 2)
· Chair, NCEE Task Force on Managing Change
· Board member, Illinois Institute for Entrepreneurship Education
· Member, Money$mart Advisory Council, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
· Member, Executives Club of Chicago Civic Affairs Committee
· Member, Union League Club of Chicago sub-committee on Education
· Member, CPS Finance Academy Board
· Member, NIU President’s Commission on the Status of Women
Bonnie Meszaros joined the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware in 1974 as a field consultant and currently serves as the Center’s associate director. After graduation from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1967, she taught middle school in Ohio and Delaware before joining the Center. She received her Masters in Education in 1980 and PhD in 1986 from the University of Delaware. She served as project director and as a member of the writing team for the development of Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics. In her work at the Center, Dr. Meszaros has worked with teachers offering economic education programs that emphasize higher-order thinking skills, creative thinking, and integration of economics across the curriculum. She is a past president of the National Association of Economic Educators and was a recipient of the Bessie B. Moore Service Award from the National Association of Economic Educators and the National Council on Economic Education. She is author of over 25 economic education publications and has published in The Journal of Economic Education, Social Studies and the Young Learner, Social Education, AEA Papers and Proceedings, and Theory and Research in Social Education.
Thomas S. Vontz, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Education at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo. Dr. Vontz received his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University where he directed the Indiana Program for Law-Related Education and held a Research Faculty appointment. Dr. Vontz specializes in Social Studies Education, Teacher Education, and Program Evaluation. He is the author of many journal articles, book chapters, and two books: Vontz, Thomas S., Kim K. Metcalf, Project Citizen and the Civic Development of Adolescent Students in Indiana, Latvia, and Lithuania. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, 2000 and Leming, Robert S. and Thomas S. Vontz. Teaching Constitutional Issues with Scripted Trials: Search and Seizure, Freedom of Expression, and the Establishment Clause. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, 1998.
Eva Johnston received her BA from the University of Missouri-Columbia in Political Science and Speech Communication. She earned her Master’s in the Instructional Process from Washington University. She has taught in the Rockwood Public School District for 17 years, currently teaching at Marquette High School. She teaches economics, U.S. Government, AP Government and Politics. She serves as the sponsor of the school’s Fed Challenge Team, taking the team to the national finals in each of the last five years. In 1999 she received the Award as the top Civics teacher in Missouri when her students scored the highest in the Missouri Bar Association’s statewide civics exam. She was selected Marquette Teacher-of-the-Year in 2002.
Dr. John A. Jones holds a B.S. degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, a M.A.T. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a doctorate from the University of Florida. His doctorate degree was in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in research methodology and a minor in statistics. Dr. Jones has taught at high schools and served as an administrator in Missouri and Florida school districts. After teaching at the college level in Texas, he returned to his native state of Missouri and had a twenty-year career with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. While at DESE he worked with the school finance and school data sections and finished his career at the DESE as Director of Planning and Evaluation. In 1992 Dr. Jones was the only state employee designated as an expert witness to give testimony during the fact finding and hearing phases of litigation pursuant to the school finance lawsuit concerning equity of the Missouri system for funding public education. He gave a total of 24 hours of testimony while being deposed and another five hours of testimony before Judge Kinder during the hearing phase. In 1993 Dr. Jones coauthored the first draft of Senate Bill 380 under the direction of State Senator Harold Caskey. Dr. Jones then advised other legislators and members of Governor Carnahan’s staff concerning changes to SB 380 as it moved through the legislative process. It was a great pleasure for Dr. Jones to see the bill enacted as law during the next to last day of the 1993 session of the General Assembly. Since 1993 he has been an adviser concerning and sometimes author of nearly every major piece of school finance legislation enacted by the General Assembly. In July of 1996 he became Coordinator of Salary and Research Services for the Missouri State Teachers Association and a part-time lobbyist for this association. Today he continues to serve MSTA in these functions as a part-time employee during his semi-retirement.