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Laura Taylor

Associate Provost for Academic Finance; Associate Professor of Economics

Headshot of Laura Taylor

Contact Information

Salem Campus

Address
Smullin 303
900 State Street
Salem  Oregon  97301
U.S.A.
Phone
(503) 370-6522

Biography

Professor Taylor joined the Department of Economics at Willamette University in Fall 2005. Since June 2020, in addition to maintaining her academic appointment, she also serves as the Associate Provost for Academic Finance.

The Associate Provost for Academic Finance is responsible for providing leadership and support in the planning, coordinating and deployment of University financial resources. She works collaboratively with the University community to advance the University’s strategic budgeting efforts and the strategic alignment of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, the College of Law, the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Computing and Data Science Committee of Studies. The Associate Provost supports and advises the Provost, the Deans of the Colleges and the leadership of other academic and administrative units on campus, in strategic budgeting, resource planning and the allocation and use of financial resources. The Associate Provost serves in a key role to connect the academic units of the university to the financial operations and planning administrative units.

She holds a PhD in Economics from Colorado State University. For her dissertation, she completed an ethnographic field study in Krasnodar, Russia where she studied how households were adapting to the change from the Soviet planned economic system to the current market-based system. Her areas of research include the transition of the Russian economy in the 1990s, the contemporary Russian economy in the Putin era, social capital, the military retirement system, and various research projects on the practice of forensic economic analysis.

At Willamette, Professor Taylor’s teaching responsibilities have included An Introduction to Economic Inquiry, Macroeconomic Theory, and the Senior Seminar as well as a number of elective courses including Comparative Economic Systems and the Political Economy of Oil. Most recently, Professor Taylor developed a new elective titled “From Plan to Market”—a course on Soviet and Russian economic history.

Professor Taylor is also an affiliated faculty member of the International Studies Program.
Prior to completing her graduate studies, Professor Taylor worked for several years as an investigator at the Chicago Board of Trade’s Office of Investigations and Audits, where she was responsible for investigating potential instances of fraudulent or improper trading in the CBOT’s financial and agricultural futures and options markets.

In addition to her PhD, Professor Taylor also holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from DePaul University as well as two Bachelor’s Degrees – one in Economics and one in Russian, from Goucher College.

Recent Articles

Sivers Boyce, N., J. Gray, C. Whiting, D. Negri, L. Taylor, R. Mascarenhas, T. Knight, and Y. Liang. “Curricular Reform at Willamette University.” International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education 8.02 (2017): 156-183.

Taylor, Laura, and William G. Brandt. “Assessing Economic Damages in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation: The State of Washington.” Journal of Forensic Economics 26.1 (2015): 115-131.

Taylor, L. (2010) “Assessing Economic Damages in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation: The State of Alaska.” Journal of Forensic Economics, 21 (2), 199 – 218.

Taylor, P. and Taylor, L. (2007). “The Financial Cost of an Involuntary Military Separation.” Journal of Legal Economics, 14 (1), 1 – 22.

Taylor, L. and Wrenn, M. (2003). “Forging New Relationships:  Social Capital in the Transition.” Forum for Social Economics 33 (1), 1-12.

Awards

Professor Taylor is the recipient of the United Methodist Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service (2018), the Mortar Board Professor of the Year Award (2016), and the Jerry E. Hudson Award for Excellence in Teaching (2015). 

Willamette University

Economics

Address
Smullin Hall 3rd floor
Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6232
503-370-6720 fax