Leah Mathews

Dr. Mathews is an interdisciplinary, systems-thinking, teacher scholar who believes in the power of economic literacy to change lives and minds. She centers lived experience and embraces the power of storytelling and narrative in her courses as an essential complement to quantitative approaches that predominate in economics. Her work in the classroom has been recognized with several awards including the University of North Carolina Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award from the Southern Economic Association. Dr. Mathews earned her Ph.D. (Applied Economics) from the University of Minnesota and serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina Asheville.