The Department of Economics formed its Advisory Board in October 2012 as part of an active effort to re-engage MSU alumni with the department. The Board’s members are alumni and former faculty members who have excelled in a variety of careers and pursuits and have a clear understanding of how instrumental the MSU Economics Department has been in their individual successes. The department appreciates the willingness of these individuals to lend their time, knowledge, and expertise to our ongoing efforts to improve the MSU Department of Economics. During its first year, the Board adopted the following Mission Statement, which lays out our guiding principles.
Mission Statement
The Advisory Board for the Michigan State University Economics Department will work in conjunction with the faculty, students, and staff of the Economics Department to support and strengthen the department’s goals and academic standards while providing advice to the department on how it can better serve its students, the University, the State of Michigan, and the Economics Profession.
Through its partnership, the Advisory Board and the Department of Economics seek to
- Enhance the experience of our undergraduate majors and graduate students while continuing to provide world-class education in economics
- Strengthen the ties between the department and the business community, government agencies, academic institutions, and other employers of our graduates
- Build a strong network of alumni and friends who support and collaborate with the Department
- Build an internship/placement program that will allow the Department to attract outstanding students
- Provide support and resources for the faculty in their research mission
- Maintain or enhance the national ranking of our graduate program
- Become a center of excellence for research on the economics of education and to gain national recognition for our graduate training program
Advisory Board Members
Kathleen Beegle is a Lead Economist in the World Bank's Research Group. The World Bank provides global financial products, technical assistance and resources, and innovative solutions for complex development challenges facing low and middle income economies. As a development economics researcher, she has experience in the study of poverty, labor, economic shocks, and methodological studies on household survey data collection in developing countries. She established and co-leads the World Bank Center for Research on Women and Jobs. She has published widely in refereed journals, as well as co-leading flagship World Bank reports and co-authoring chapters in books. She is a regular blogger for the World Bank’s Development Impact blog. While at the World Bank, she was the Human Development Program Leader for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, based in Accra, Ghana (2014-2018) and a Lead Economist with the Gender Group (2018-2021).
She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University (with a focus on development and labor). She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at RAND. She has taught at Georgetown University.
Information coming soon.
Nick Nefouse, CFA, an MSU Economics alumnus, is the Global Head of Retirement Solutions in BlackRock’s Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions (MASS) team and Head of LifePath, BlackRock’s global target date fund franchise – helping millions around the world save and invest for retirement. He is a board member of both the Financial Markets Institute Board and Department of Economics Alumni Advisory Board.
Matt Nelson is Wells Fargo’s Commercial Banking (CB) chief risk officer. He reports to the company’s chief risk officer and serves on Wells Fargo’s Management Committee. In this role, Matt is responsible for the independent risk management function overseeing front-line risk management of CB. He also delivers a comprehensive view of risks across CB business lines, providing senior management with an independent perspective of the level of risk exposure across all risk types, including credit, compliance, operational, market, model, and strategic risks.
Previous roles within the company include chief risk officer for Middle Market Banking, group senior credit officer for Asset-Backed Finance and the Financial Institutions Group, managing director and head of originations for the Gaming Division of the Corporate Banking Group, founder and head of Wells Fargo Gaming Capital, LLC, and managing director in Wells Fargo Capital Finance’s Specialty Finance Group.
Before joining Wells Fargo in 2005, Matt was a commercial finance and restructuring attorney in private practice. With a long-standing commitment to giving back to his community, he has served on several nonprofit boards. Matt holds a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University.
Michelle Orlando (Economics 2014) is a Statistical Reports Supervisor over the Monetary & Call Reports unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She first joined the Chicago Fed in 2014 after graduating from Michigan State University, and since that time has held various analytical roles pertaining to the financial reporting and credit risk management of financial institutions in the Fed’s Seventh District, which encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
While an undergraduate student, Michelle was a member of the Honors College and was actively involved in the economics department and community. She served as a teaching assistant for introductory microeconomics courses and was a member of the MSU Student Economics Association. During her senior year, Michelle received the Department of Economics Edward A. and Eleanor B. Carlin Award, was the department’s nominee for the Richard Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize, and was a recipient of the Board of Trustees’ Award. Michelle enjoys staying connected with current economics students, as she hosts the Econ Scholars at the Chicago Fed each year during their annual trip to Chicago, and engages with fellow MSU economics alumni in the Chicagoland area.
Michelle received a bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in Spanish from Michigan State University in 2014 and a Master of Business Administration with concentrations in economics, finance, and strategic management from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2020.
James A. Plemmons (Economics, 1986) is a member of Dickinson Wright, PLLC, in Detroit, and the manager of the firm’s Automotive, Bankruptcy and Insolvency, and Product Liability Litigation Practice Department. Dickinson Wright is a national law firm that provides services to businesses and individuals in more than 40 practice areas. It has 15 offices across the country, including six in Michigan. Jim has earned his reputation for providing exemplary services to automotive companies, including FCA US, LLC (f/k/a Chrysler), Johnson Controls, Magna International and Visteon Corp., particularly when helping them protect their interests when supply interruption is a concern for any reason, including economic, financial or labor. Jim’s client base isn’t limited to automotive companies. He has also counselled lenders, debtors, shareholders, investor groups, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and several other types of manufacturers and suppliers in workout, foreclosure and bankruptcy matters.
Jim earned his B.A. with high honors from Michigan State University, and his J.D. from American University’s Washington School of Law in Washington, D.C. He has served on a number of non-profit groups and was a graduate of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Detroit Class XXVIII. Jim’s wife, Elizabeth S. Plemmons, M.D., is also a MSU graduate.
Information coming soon.
Nick Sly (PhD ‘09) is Vice President and Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, currently serving as the Branch Executive in the Denver office. As Branch Executive, he serves as the KC Fed’s regional economist and its representative in Colorado, Wyoming, and northern New Mexico, leading the local research and public engagement teams. He works closely with the Denver Branch’s board of directors, as well as local functional leadership, to foster branch culture and effectiveness. As Vice President, he provides strategic support for community development teams across all offices of the Tenth Federal Reserve District. He is responsible for briefing the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City on economic conditions in the region. The combined portfolio of regional economic research and community development ensures those briefings represent conditions of the region’s unique economic footprint and the perspectives of low- and moderate-income households.
Before joining the Fed, Nick was associate professor of economics at the University of Oregon where he taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses and conducted research on international economic issues. Yet, his teaching career began in earnest while he was at MSU, serving as an instructor for several economic courses while working on his degree. Nick holds a BA from the University of Northern Iowa in mathematics and economics, his PhD from MSU, and also attended the Stonier Graduate School of Banking.
Jay Thaker is the Executive Director of Corporate Development and Growth at the University of North Carolina Health Care System. He leads transactions such as acquisitions, divestitures and investments; partnerships, both joint ventures or alliances; and growth strategies and new lines of business that help position the North Carolina health system.
Parth Tikiwala is the Head of Global Public Sector at Nemetschek Group, and Head of Public Sector at Bluebeam. In his role, he leads the public sector strategy for two organizations within the Nemetschek Group. At the Group level, he heads global public sector setting the strategy across the United States, Germany, and India—helping public infrastructure authorities and delivery agencies modernize how they plan, build, and manage the critical infrastructure their citizens depend on. At Bluebeam, his focus narrows to public sector strategy for the U.S. government and the broader AEC ecosystem.
Michael Watson is CEO and founder of Hedgineer, a software and consulting company working with hedge funds on data and AI strategy. Prior to starting Hedgineer, he held several roles at Citadel and Citadel Securities including Head of Equities Technology for their long short business, Head of Enterprise Data for both firm’s security master, entity master, and pricing master, and Head of Data Engineering focusing on alternative data. Prior to 8 years at Citadel, Michael was a software engineer with a lean six sigma black belt at JD Power automating their research process. He has spoken at several Python conferences and is the host of the Hedgineer Podcast focusing on technology, AI, and data within asset management. He earned a bachelor of science in economics in 2010 and established the Michael D. Watson and Elias Scheker Da Silva Student Success Award in Economics for economics students who are part of the Fed Challenge, which he was a member of during his time at MSU. He is based in New York City and spends his free time with his two kids and wife, playing basketball, and snowboarding.
Information coming soon.
- Dr. Robert Goodman
- Joe Hollis
- Dr. Shashikant (Shashi) Gupta
- Dr. David Kelly
- Dr. Edward Montgomery
- Greg Psihas
- John Radtke
- Dr. William (Bill) Raduchel
- Dr. Robert H. Rasche
- Jim Schaberg
- Mark Simon
- Tom Sleeter
- Pam Steckroat
- John B. Whitledge
- Stewart Zimmerman