What Are Economics Alumni Doing Now
Do you have something to share? Let’s us know, email econdept@boisestate.edu.
Paloma Chumacero
Paloma Chumacero graduated from Boise State in 2020 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics. While an undergraduate, she was a member and officer in the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society, received the COBE Signature Student award for economics in 2020 and was one of three students to be selected to participate in the undergraduate poster competition at the Association of Private Enterprise Education annual conference in Nassau, Bahamas.
After graduation, she was accepted into Columbia’s graduate program in international affairs and economic policy. She received her master’s degree in 2023 and started a new position at JP Morgan in New York City as a risk analyst working under the chief risk officer. Paloma credits economics faculty for helping her develop confidence.
“Boise State and the Department of Economics encouraged me to dream and aim for greatness,” said Paloma. “I will always be grateful to the department faculty for the challenges, which pushed me to work harder, and the support, which made me believe in myself.”
Thomas Sharpe
“After two years in market research and five years in higher education data analytics, I began pursuing a Master of Science in Economics at Boise State to further develop my economic reasoning and advance my analytical capabilities. The mathematical and computational rigor of the program has been exactly what I was looking for. I appreciate the expertise and enthusiasm of the economics faculty here at Boise State. I have already been able to leverage lessons learned in my current employment and am excited for the future opportunities this degree will enhance.”THOMAS SHARPE, MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ECONOMICS SIGNATURE STUDENT
Bonang Seoela
“During my time as an economics graduate student at Boise State, I was impressed with the level of attention and care the faculty give to their students. Given the rigorous nature of the program, the faculty was always understanding and created a conducive learning environment. Studying at Boise State is one of the best experiences in my life.”
David Shin
David Shin has been named a Schwarzman Scholar for the class of 2023. Shin is the first Boise State student to win this scholarship since its inception in 2015. The Schwarzman Scholar program accepted 151 scholars out of nearly 3,000 applicants this year. This places its acceptance rate on par with other prestigious programs like the Marshall and Rhodes scholarships. Shin attributes his success to the academic environment here at Boise State. “The economics department has cultivated a faculty that, above all else, values intellectual curiosity.”
Holly Bossart, class of 2020
“Coming to Boise State and studying in the College of Business and Economics was the best academic decision I’ve made. Professors have given me top-level instruction and connected me with opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Boise State has provided me with scholarships and funding for research helping me to graduate debt-free. I will forever be grateful to Boise State and the Department of Economics for giving me amazing opportunities to grow.” –Holly Bossart
Holly’s Accomplishments:
- Fall 2020 received a graduate assistantship to attend Carnegie Mellon University Ph.D. program. (She was also accepted into graduate programs at Columbia University, the University of Chicago and New York University, and had an opportunity to interview for a 2-year position as a research assistant at Stanford University.)
- 2020 Outstanding Graduate in economics.
- Graduated with a double major in economics and mathematics
- Spring 2020, Holly work with statistics professor Jaechoul Lee on a HERC Fellowship (paid, 10-week research experience from the Boise State Institute for STEM and Diversity Initiatives).
- 2019 presented her research on the impact of job insecurity on mental wellbeing at the Southern Regional Science Association meetings in Arlington, Virginia.
- Summer 2019, attended the Dordt College Ukraine Research Experience for Undergrads on a scholarship. Holly was 1 of 8 students accepted out of more than 300 applicants.
- 2019 Received the Dean’s Choice Award for undergraduate research
Josiah Bynum, class of 2019
Josiah graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with minors in finance and applied math. He is attending a financial economics master program at Utah State and working with the Center for Growth and Opportunity as a graduate research fellow.
Class of 2018
Lauren Butler joined ECONorthwest as a research analyst after graduating magna cum laude from Boise State University. She conducts analyses with large, micro-level data sets using Stata and specializes in distilling and communicating complex economic and mathematical relationships into actionable findings for clients. While at Boise State, Lauren received several scholarship and authored a senior thesis that evaluated evidence-based policies within community corrections for the Idaho Department of Correction.
Makenzie Peake is in the Master of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she also works as a research assistant. After graduation from Boise State she joined the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis as a research associate. See an example of Makenzie’s research “Worker Diversity and Wage Growth Since 1940” on the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ economic research website.
Christian Sprague was in the first graduating class of the Master of Science in Economics program at Boise State University and was recognized as the Outstanding Graduate. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Systems Science and Engineering at Cornell University and Senior Data Science Fellow at Cornell Center for Social Science. Equal parts data scientist, systems engineer, and researcher, Christian explores new ways to think about, evaluate, and interact with complex social systems. He developed a measure of neighborhood access in school choice markets across the United States, using student administrative data, to help policymakers strategize effective school choice efforts.
Cassie Sullivan
“Boise State’s College of Business and Economics positioned me to excel in the business world by providing me with lifetime mentors who connected me with relevant internships and opportunities. These relationships have provided me invaluable support throughout various phases of life, ” said Cassie
Cassie graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and was a Boise State University Top Ten Scholar. She joined Deloitte in right out college. Through Deloitte’s graduate school assistance program she completed a one-year MBA at the Oxford Saïd Business School at Oxford University, U.K in 2018. She was named one of the “10 Remarkable Women MBAs to Watch” by graduate business education source Poets and Quants.
Zachary Turk, class of 2014
Zachary graduated in 2014 with a BBA in Business Economics and was a Top Ten Scholar that year. He went on to receive an Master of Science in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California at Davis in 2015 and Master of Engineering Science in Environmental Science at Yale University in 2017. Zachary completed his Ph.D. in Environmental Economics at the London School of Economics in 2020.
George Fenton
George Fenton graduated summa cum laude in 2012 with a double major in economics and math. He competed with distinction on the Boise State speech and debate team, has a 2010 national title in impromptu speaking, was a Boise State University Top Ten Scholar and gave the 2012 commencement address.
George completed his economics Ph.D. at the University of Michigan was selected by his students as a top ten graduate student instructor in economics in 2019.
He is a senior policy analyst with the Federal Fiscal Policy team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Prior to working at CBPP, George worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., working under top monetary policy decision makers including former Chair Janet Yellen.
“With my statistics training and economics degree from Boise State, I was well-prepared for the research assistant role at The Fed,” George said.