Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State professor and administrator travels to Texas early next month to formally receive a national tribute for his contributions to economic education research.
Paul W. Grimes, head of the university's finance and economics department, is the National Council on Economic Education's 2005 selection for its Henry H. Villard Research Award.
A College of Business and Industry faculty member since 1987, Grimes also heads the MSU-based Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy, an economics education outreach program that assists school teachers from kindergarten through high school with implementing the state's economics curriculum.
Named for the co-founder and first editor of the prestigious Journal of Economic Education, the Villard Award is the New York City-based organization's highest honor. The honor will be presented Oct. 6 during NCEE's annual conference in San Antonio.
A specialist in labor economics and public policy, Grimes is a frequent journal contributor.
"Paul's research has raised many interesting and important questions pertaining to economic education," said Jane S. Lopus, one of Grimes' nominators for the award. She directs the economic education center at California State University, East Bay.
Lopus praised Grimes' studies in student evaluations of teaching, academic dishonesty, state mandates, and economic growth, among other areas. "The field of economic education is indeed richer due to Paul's varied and creative contributions," she observed.
Grimes long has been involved in economic research. He is a doctoral graduate of Oklahoma State University who completed bachelor's and master's degrees from Pittsburg (Kan.) State University.
Shortly after coming to MSU, he was among 20 people selected from around the country for the Princeton University Research Fellows Program.
In the early 1990s, he was asked by NCEE leaders to evaluate a national elementary and secondary education program for at-risk students known as "Choices and Changes." He later completed similar work for a NCEE international program in Kazakhstan, a former Central Asian communist nation.
In 2003, Grimes led in establishing the Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy, which until recently was the only such Mississippi program of its kind holding NCEE-affiliation. Since that time, the center has produced and delivered a series of statewide programs designed to improve basic decision-making skills at all levels of the secondary-school network.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information on Dr. Grimes' state and national work, feel free to contact him at (662) 325-1987 or pwg2@ra.msstate.edu.