Economics Department Distinguished Alumni Award Winners

Here is a list of the department's Distinguished Alumni Award winners since 1999.

2006 - John E. Anderson

John received his B.A. in Mathematics and Economics at Western Michigan University in 1973. He went on to get his M.A. (1976) and Ph.D. (1977) degrees in economics at the Claremont Graduate School. John worked a number of years at Eastern Michigan University before taking a position at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1991. He is currently the Baird Family Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and has been the Chairman of the Economics Department there since 2002. Recently, John was appointed as Senior Economist of the Council of Economic Advisors for 2005-2006. Dr. Anderson advises on public finance matters and on tax policy issues, two of his areas of expertise. He has published widely on these subject matters in numerous highly regarded academic journals as well as other outlets. Dr. Anderson's webpage can be found here.

2005 – Daniel Bitzer
Daniel received his MA in Economics from WMU in 1984. Prior to that he earned his BS in Mathematics from Ferris State. Bitzer entered the banking business in 1984 and he has worked in corporate banking with various lending and management responsibilities for the last 20 years. Daniel is currently Senior Vice President and Divisional Manager of Investment Real Estate with National City Bank, servicing the west and mid-Michigan markets and managing an $800 million loan portfolio. Bitzer is also active with various community organizations.

2004 – Daniel Arce
Daniel recived is MA in Economics from us in 1985. He earned a BA in Mathematics and Spanish from Olivet College in 1984 and he received his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1992. Dr. Arce was a faculty member at the University of Alabama for about 10 years. He has held the Robert D. McCallum Dinstingished Professor of Economics and Business position at Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) since 2000. Daniel has approximately 30 publications in various journals including Public Choice, Land Economics, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Oxford Economic Papers, Journal of International Money and Finance, and Journal of Conflict Resolution. Dr. Arce has received numerous grants, honors, and scholarships including the WMU Economics Department’s Floyd Moore Award in 1985. Dr. Arce's has a webpage at http://www.rhodes.edu/Rhodes/EconomicsandBusiness/FacultyandStaff/arce.cfm.

2003 – Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes
Catalina earned her Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Western Michigan University in 1998. She came to Western with B.A.degrees in Economics and French (1992) from Universidad de Sevilla, and a Licence et Maîtrise és Sciences Economiques (1991) from Université de Poitiers. While studying for the Ph.D. she concurrently earned a J.D. 1996) from Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. After graduating from WMU, Dr. Amuedo-Dorantes spent a year as Research Associate at the Center for Human Resource Research, Ohio State University. Since 1999 she has been with the Economics department at San Diego State University. She has an international reputation and is widely sought out for her expertise in the areas of immigration, informal work and workers' remittances. Her publications have appeared in American Economic Review, Industrial Labor Relations Review, Journal of International Money and Finance, Economic Development and Cultural Change, among others. She currently is IZA Research Fellow at the Institute for Research on Labor (Bonn, Germany) and Research Associate at Fundación Centro de Estudios Andaluces (Sevilla, Spain). Dr. Amuedo-Dorantes' has a webpage at http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~camuedod/.

2002 – Vinod Thomas
Vinod earned his M.A. in Economics at Western Michigan University in 1971 and his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Chicago in 1974. Dr. Thomas has been with the World Bank since 1976 where he has served in several capacities. As of November 2001, he has held the position of Country Director, Brazil. He is responsible for one of the World Bank’s largest portfolios of lending, policy and analytical work. Prior to his current appointment, he was Vice President of the World Bank Institute (WBI), the training arm of the World Bank. Dr. Thomas was responsible for the Bank’s principal vehicle for delivering timely knowledge in member countries through seminars, conferences, and a variety of print, broadcast, and multi-media products. Dr. Thomas’ expertise includes knowledge sharing and training, trade policy, macroeconomic adjustment, macro-sectoral links, environmental policy, agricultural policy, urban economics, and poverty measures.
Prior to heading the WBI, Dr. Thomas held positions as chief economist for the World Bank in the East Asia and Pacific region, chief economist for Asia, staff director for the 1991 World Development Report, chief of trade policy, and principal economist for Colombia. From 1979 to 1981, Dr. Thomas was a Visiting Professor and Advisor of Urban Studies at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

2001 – Tony Tan
Anthony (Tony) Tan founder of ZCorum, Inc., has served as its Chairman and CEO since its inception in May 1997 and also served as President up until October 2000. Prior to his tenure with ZCorum, Mr. Tan served as the President and CEO of America net, the assets of which were purchased by ZCorum. Mr. Tan has a diverse background with extensive experience in financial management, marketing, human resource and business management. Prior to joining America net, Mr. Tan was Direct in the Structured Finance Group at First Chicago-NBD Corportation, one of the largest banks in the United States with more than 34,000 employees and $120billion in assets. Prior to First Chicago-NBD he held several senior management and consulting positions, including serving as the General Manager and Deputy Executive Director of the Metropolitan YMCA. Mr. Tan, who is a Certified Financial Planner, received an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Chicago, and an MA in Economics with honors from Western Michigan University in 1989.

2000 – Charles Zhang

Charles Zhang, CFP, ChFC, CLU, CMFC, graduated from Western Michigan University in June 1991 with an M.A. in Economics and immediately joined American Express Financial Advisors. At age 29 he was already the top advisor, besting 8500 competitors nationwide, and earned the Alex M. Alexander award. He remains the number one advisor among American Express's 11,000 financial advisors; clients have rated him best in areas of trust, performance, satisfaction, and quality of advice. In recent years, Mr. Zhang has also taught at the College of Financial Planning and the Haworth College of Business, has become a member of WMU's McKee society in The President's Circle, and has founded the Charles and Lynn Zhang Foundation, which benefits WMU's Department of Economics. Mr. Zhang as also received an MBA in 2004 from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

1999 – Louis Hellerman
Louis Hellerman majored in Economics and Political Science as a member of the Western Michigan University Honors College, and when he graduated with a B.A., Magna Cum Laude, in the early 1960s he was awarded "best student" of both departments. After earning his J.D. from the law school at the University of Michigan in 1967, he spent three years in the U.S. Marine Corps. After being promoted to Captain in Vietnam and serving as the youngest Staff Judge Advocate in the Marine Corps and later as a Federal Military Judge, Mr. Hellerman attended Harvard University, where he received an MBA with Honors; later he received his CPA. Mr. Hellerman has taught accounting at Cleveland State University, done consulting for Ernst and Young, and served in a succession of increasingly responsible financial positions for several corporations, including Chief Financial Officer for two 100+ million-dollar organizations. In 1989 he founded Argo Associates, which provides financial advice to small and medium-sized firms.

Department of Economics, College of Arts & Sciences
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