Michael E. Staten

Dr. Michael E. Staten is Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the Interim Dean for the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences/Cooperative Extension at the University of Arizona.  Dr. Staten’s prior positions in the college include serving as the Bart Cardon Associate Dean for Academic Programs (2015 -2023), and Director of the Take Charge America Institute for Consumer Financial Education and Research (2008 – 2016). 

Staten received his Ph.D. in economics from Purdue University’s Krannert Graduate School of Management.  Dr. Staten has extensive research experience around consumer financial services markets, especially products related to consumer lending, credit reporting, credit scoring and credit risk evaluation, debt relief and rehabilitation, and consumer financial education.  From 1990 – 2007 he directed public policy research centers at Purdue, Georgetown, and George Washington University, designing and publishing research on a wide range of consumer finance issues.  He has made invited presentations on consumer financial issues at workshops sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, and Washington, DC think-tanks including the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution. Dr. Staten served as a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Payment Card Center from 2010-2013.  He was Co-PI of the Congressionally mandated FACTA 319 study of the accuracy of credit reports for the Federal Trade Commission in 2010-2012 and was an appointed member of the Academic Research Council for the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from 2020–2022.

In addition to his research experience, Mike also has a decade of experience in developing and scaling up youth financial education programs for both local and national audiences in classroom environments through the University of Arizona’s Take Charge America Institute.  He worked with both the U.S. Treasury Department and the national Council for Economic Education (CEE) to write learning standards and benchmarks for personal finance in grades K-12, including co-authoring CEE’s national standards for Personal Finance.  He served as Chairman of the Board for the National Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy (2017-2021), and on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Council for Economic Education (2015-2020).