Center for Economic Education Appoints Lee as Co-Director
University of Georgia economics professor Dwight R. Lee has been appointed co-director of the UGA Center for Economic Education. Lee will work closely with center co-director Ron VanSickle, a professor of social studies education, to strengthen delivery of economic education opportunities for grade school teachers in Georgia.
Established in 1976, the UGA Center for Economic Education is one of 12 such centers based at universities in Georgia. Its mission is “to provide K-12 teachers with economics knowledge, curriculum resources and instructional skills to teach their students to make effective decisions as producers, consumers, family members and citizens of their communities, state, nation and the world.”
Van Sickle, who has directed the center for the past eight years, first joined in 1982 as acting director. He was associate director from 1986-96.
The center sponsors preservice and in-service workshops and courses for educators and publishes instructional materials for use in Georgia classrooms. It is affiliated with the Georgia Council on Economic Education and the National Council on Economic Education in New York. Dean George Benson of UGA's Terry College of Business is a member of the board of trustees of the Georgia Council on Economic Education.
“Dwight's experience as an economics scholar and internationally recognized advocate for private enterprise and free markets makes him the right choice to strengthen the quality of economic education in Georgia's schools,” Benson said in announcing the appointment.
Lee joined the faculty of the Terry College of Business in 1985 as director of the Ramsey Center for Private Enterprise and holder of the Bernard B. and Eugenia A. Ramsey Chair of Private Enterprise. He has spent time as a visiting scholar at the Center for Study of American Business at Washington University (1988-89) and at the Liberty Fund in Indianapolis (1999).
An expert on public choice, public finance and environmental economics, Lee is the author of dozens of articles for academic journals and nine books, including Getting Rich in America: 8 Simple Rules for Building a Fortune and a Satisfying Life, which was published in 1999 with co-author Richard McKenzie.
Monday, February 28, 2005
WRITER: David Dodson, 706/542-3527, ddodson@terry.uga.edu
CONTACT: Dwight Lee, 706/542-3970, dlee@terry.uga.edu