UNC system honors Mike Walden for helping make economics easier for the rest of us to understand

Congratulations to Michael Walden, author of North Carolina in the Connected Age: Challenges and Opportunities in a Globalizing Economy, who has just been awarded the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Public Service. The award is intended “to encourage, identify, recognize, and reward distinguished public service and outreach by faculty across the University.” So what has Walden done to earn this recognition? Well, there’s this:

“Walden, who has taught at NC State for the past 32 years, is arguably the most recognized economist in North Carolina. An award-winning teacher and researcher, he also pioneered the use of mass media in extension programming to help average citizens understand complex economic principals and relationships so that they can make better decisions about their own lives. In addition to his classroom teaching, he writes and broadcasts a daily commercial radio program, writes a biweekly column carried by more than 40 newspapers, conducts a monthly call-in radio program, and publishes biannual economic forecasts for the state and its regions.”

And that’s just for starters. Read the full press release for a longer list of Walden’s contributions.

Just yesterday, Walden was a guest on WUNC’s The State of Things, discussing current unemployment in North Carolina and what we can do about it.

You can find links to his research and online tools at Walden’s website. You can listen to podcasts of his brief, informative show, Economic Perspective, online. Today’s episode: “Who Is Middle Class?”
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We add our voices to the chorus of congratulations for an honor well deserved. Hopefully this recognition can help spread Walden’s name to even more people who stand to benefit from his talent of making economics something regular folks can understand and put to good use.