Carnegie Mellon University

Meet the First Year Economics Teaching Team

The first-year teaching team includes faculty who are not only successful educators but are scholars at the forefront of their research areas. 

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Principles of Microeconomics: James Best

Principles courses are rewarding to teach because the students' understanding of the subject moves in leaps and bounds. I also think it is a great privilege to be laying the foundations for their future learning.  

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Principles of Microeconomics: John Gasper

In terms of why I enjoy teaching the first-years. ... Getting first-years to think about a topic or a problem in a new way is a lot of fun! We're helping them develop a new toolkit to understand the world. They're inherently curious, and seeing that spark take hold is great. 

Professor Portnykh

Principles of Microeconomics: Margarita Portnykh

Helping someone to embark on a successful career is always an exciting and rewarding opportunity.

Even though not all of our students might choose to pursue economics as their main field in the future, this course gives them an essential tool for understanding current social, political, environmental issues, which would then allow them to make optimal decisions in their lives.

Professor Chris Sleet

Principles of Macroeconomics: Chris Sleet

Principles of Macroeconomics provides students with an introduction to the economic analysis of large populations of firms and people using CMU's unique data-infused approach. Students consider the sources of business cycles, the role of the Federal Reserve, the emergence of Bitcoin, the value of tariffs, the impact of the Black Death on the economy of 14th century Europe, and the future growth potential of China, along with many other topics. The course is a gateway to our intermediate macroeconomics course and more advanced macro electives.

Professor Ariel Zeltin-Jones

Principles of Macroeconomics: Ariel Zetlin-Jones

I can think of at least two reasons I find teaching Principles of Macroeconomics at Carnegie Mellon so rewarding. First, it's fun to share with students how the same economic principles that underlie the decisions individuals make in their own lives are also critical for understanding large scale economies and macroeconomic policy tradeoffs. And second, we have fantastic students who are thoughtful, curious, and eager to learn and I get to share in their enthusiasm for macroeconomics throughout the semester.