ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
CHRIS ACKER
Chris Acker, who graduated from KU in 2022 with a BS in Economics and minors in both math and philosophy, works as a research associate at the Kansas City Federal Reserve in the banking and financial markets division.
He said that working at the KC Fed had “familiarized me with the process of conducting research in a way that no other opportunity could, from the down-and-dirty data scrubbing to the glamorous and intricate theoretical modelling. The resident experts and frequent guest speakers offer a wealth of expertise and wisdom that create a formative environment for aspiring professionals in the field of economics.”
Chris explained that he works closely with other economists to write research papers and brief senior Fed officials on economic conditions prior to meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), where potential changes to monetary policy are deliberated.
“My KU economics degree gave me the tools to understand the process of producing research and policy guidance. Much of the daily analysis I am involved with involves the use of concepts I learned in courses like econometrics,” he said. “I have also benefited enormously from the research methods course sequence I took from Professor Earnhart, which gave me a clear understanding of the research process necessary for this position at the Fed.”
He has many fond recollections of his days at KU, especially his Friday meetings with the environmental policy lab group.
“For me, pairing the economics degree with math and philosophy minors was a natural fit,” Chris said. “Most answers to questions in economics are tested using empirical methods that use a lot of math, so it has been extremely helpful to be (somewhat) math-literate. Philosophy is a less common pairing for economics majors, but I have found that my philosophy courses were uniquely invaluable. Those courses gave me extensive experience reading and interpreting others' arguments and ideas; and also gave me the tools understand with a much clearer ideological purpose why economics is so important.”
Chris, who said he still gets back to campus as often as he can, added that he hopes to enter a PhD program in economics in the future, likely around the fall of 2025.