Dr. Michael Walden - NC State University

Dr. Michael L. Walden is a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor and Extension Economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University, and a member of the Graduate Economics faculty with The Poole College of Management.   His Ph.D. degree is from Cornell University, and he has been at N.C. State since 1978.   He has also been a Visiting Professor at Duke University.

Dr. Walden has teaching, research, and extension responsibilities at NCSU in the areas of consumer economics, economic outlook, and public policy.   He has published twelve books and over 300 articles and reports, including his newest book North Carolina beyond the Connected Age: The Tar Heel State in 2050, published by the UNC Press. He has served on several local and state level commissions, including the Governor's Welfare Reform Task Force, the School Capital Construction Legislative Study Commission, and the Blue-Ribbon Committee for the Future of Wake County, and on the staffs of the State and Local Fiscal Modernization Study Commission and the UNC Tomorrow Commission.

Dr. Walden can be frequently seen, heard, and read in the media.   He has daily radio programs aired on stations around North Carolina for which he has won two national awards.   He is often interviewed on local TV and radio news broadcasts and has appeared on NBC, CBS, The Fox Report, and PBS.  His biweekly column, You Decide, is carried by over forty newspapers in the state.   He has made over 2,800 personal presentations.

Dr. Walden directs the semiannual economic forecast, The North Carolina Economic Outlook.   He has won numerous academic and public awards, including the Champion-Tuck Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, the UNC Board of Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service, the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and the Holladay Medal for Excellence from North Carolina State University.  With his wife, he has co-authored three “economic thrillers.”