Lanlan (Lacey) Chu Graduated with a doctorate in Economics in 2017

I started off my first year at TTU in 2011. It has been a great experience being a "Red Raider" studying and living in Lubbock. My first semester was challenging as it was my first time being abroad and learning while being a teaching assistant. However, the professors and staff were very supportive and cared about us. And the department has a diverse and inclusive environment, which encourages us to share and support. I always miss our annual lunch event together in the department library, chatting and laughing like a big "family".

While a Ph.D. student, my primary research interests were industrial organization and applied microeconomics focusing on gasoline and vehicle markets. My dissertation was titled "Essays on Gasoline Demand, Gasoline Taxes and Consumer Behavior", which was primarily mentored by Dr. Michael Noel. After graduation in May 2017, I joined the School of Business at Buena Vista University as an assistant professor of economics in August. My family moved with me to Iowa, and we lived there until July 2020. Since then, I have been an Assistant Professor of Economics at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN. My current research interests are primarily in health economics and industrial organization, focusing on aging, health, and gender. I enjoy teaching and doing research with my student scholars. The teaching experiences at TTU were beneficial and provided me necessary tools for my academic career. I appreciated the opportunities to teach introductory and upper-level economics courses in the department. The comments and feedback from the professors, peers, and students from diverse backgrounds were constructive too. I usually read each student's comment carefully at the end of each semester, which motivated me to constantly enhance my teaching skills and achieve better student outcomes semester by semester. These experiences as a graduate part-time instructor gave me the confidence and skills to teach a class during a campus visit in the job market and stand in the classroom as a faculty.