Keenan Marchesi, PhD

Throughout my academic and professional career, I have advocated for the value of an economics education and for the role that strong mentoring can play in helping students recognize that value. As a first-generation college student, my path into academia was profoundly shaped by the mentorship and support I received from my undergraduate professors. Their example shaped my commitment to building respectful, inclusive learning environments that encourage student curiosity and intellectual growth. As I developed my own courses and became more active in departmental and university life during graduate school, my graduate mentors further demonstrated how teaching, advising, and research can work together to support students' development. I have continued that commitment through formal and informal mentoring at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS), through research collaborations with graduate students and newer staff, and through my client work in industry. At its core, my teaching philosophy is grounded in the belief that individuals learn best when they are challenged, supported, and invited to see economics as a practical tool for understanding the world around them. I also want students to recognize that collaborative learning can help them achieve more together than they could alone.

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As an instructor, I have successfully taught introductory undergraduate macroeconomics and microeconomics, receiving overall teaching effectiveness scores of 4.5 and 4.7 out of 5, respectively. Across my courses, I integrate real-world examples with economic theory and emphasize critical thinking, analytical rigor, and clear communication. I have found that explaining the rationale behind assignments and connecting them explicitly to course goals helps students understand not only what they are learning, but why it matters. Student evaluations affirmed this approach, noting that well-organized lectures, practical problem sets, and in-class exercises made challenging economic concepts approachable and memorable.

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My courses emphasize collaborative and experiential learning. I previously co-instructed a senior-level food policy course, for which I received a 4.9 out of 5 in overall teaching effectiveness. The course included upper-level students in business, economics, and geography, which allowed me to draw on their interdisciplinary strengths. To build on that interdisciplinary enrollment, I developed a capstone project in which students worked collaboratively to develop a hypothesis, review relevant literature, clean and manage a dataset, analyze the data, and present their findings in both a university-wide poster conference and an in-class, business-style presentation. This structure helped them practice both concise top-line communication and more detailed client-oriented analysis. By providing a clear framework while allowing students to shape their own research questions, I helped them experience research as both rigorous and relevant to their communities. As a result of this work, I was invited by the Associate Provost to participate in a faculty focus group on project-based learning, where my assignment design and evaluation approach were recognized alongside those of well-established faculty.

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Creating a supportive and respectful classroom is central to my teaching. At the beginning of each semester, I discreetly collect students’ preferred names, pronouns, and learning preferences so that I can better understand how to support them. I also encourage students to attend office hours not only to discuss academic performance, but also to raise questions about the course, their broader university experience, or their future plans. These practices help establish trust and make students more willing to engage with course material, participate in class discussions, and seek help should they need it. I also continue to engage with students throughout the semester and seek to improve the course as it is underway. Midsemester, I conduct an anonymous survey to assess students’ progress and gather feedback on lecture pace, in-class activities, and course structure. At the midpoint and end of the semester, I ask students to reflect on their learning experience and offer advice for future students. This feedback has helped validate my approach while also identifying opportunities for improvement. Students have reported that the structured framework and support I provided helped them develop stronger study habits, time-management skills, and confidence in approaching economic analysis.

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Teaching continues to evolve, particularly in response to generative AI and the disruptions to in-person learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I respond to these changes by setting clear expectations, explaining the purpose of each assignment, and repeatedly connecting course activities to the learning goals outlined in the syllabus. My lectures begin with the day's objectives and a reminder of upcoming deadlines, helping students stay organized as the course progresses. I supplement theoretical material with data-driven examples and in-class activities that require students to practice reasoning through problems themselves. Regarding AI, I believe students need explicit guidance about when and how such tools can be used appropriately, similar to the use cases I see in industry. For that reason, I continue to rely on in-class, low-technology activities that reinforce students' ability to learn, analyze, and engage without assistive technology, while also preparing them to use emerging tools responsibly.

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My professional experience outside the classroom has given me a unique perspective on how to prepare students for post-graduation opportunities. During my time at ERS, I mentored students and early-career researchers both formally through internship programs, including the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities program, and informally through collaborative research projects with master's and Ph.D. students and newer staff. These roles gave me hands-on experience providing feedback on research, professional development, and career planning. In my current role, I serve as the only economist at my company and use my classroom experience to host webinars with more than 600 attendees. These webinars have two goals: first, to help prospective and new clients understand the value of the company's work; and second, to bring economics to the forefront of their thinking by translating complex research into digestible, actionable insights. Attendees immediately commended my ability to manage discussions and break down complex concepts. In addition, I have had the privileged of presenting how the economy has impacted food service, walking clients through the impacts of inflation and long-term effects of GLP-1's on food consumption. These client-oriented activities have reinforced my passion for instruction and my readiness to return to the classroom. I also aim to help my coworkers use the tools of economics to improve our work and make decisions more effectively. These experiences in government and private industry would allow me to help students understand the varied professional contexts in which economists work, train them to leverage publicly available government data for business insights, and translate the value of economic training into successful careers.

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My career has taken a somewhat circuitous path, but each stage has strengthened my desire to return to the classroom. My experiences in academia, government, and industry have reinforced my passion for teaching and mentoring the next generation of economists. My time at ERS allowed me to use economics to support policy and social issues. My work in industry has shown me how economics can be used to help meet client needs and address the evolving role of AI and data-driven decision-making in the business sector. My mentoring experiences through internships and research collaborations, along with my work hosting webinars, have reminded me of what I value most: helping individuals use economics to develop confidence, curiosity, and professional direction. Teaching is a lifelong practice, and I am committed to continually refining my pedagogy to support student success.