Judith began her career as a secondary school Social Studies teacher for five years. Later, after moving to a beautiful small community in the mountains of western Colorado, she became immersed in environmental activities aimed at protecting the environment from the adverse effects of the rapid increase in coal mining and electric power generation and transmission that was then occurring. Judith led the successful effort to stop an ill-considered high voltage power line that had been proposed for the area. With her research, and the help of expert outside advisers, they were able to show that the proposed line would be an economic, as well as environmental, disaster. The line was not built; later their adversaries actually thanked them for saving them from their own folly. That experience taught her that the issues were "all about" economics, so she decided that she wanted to become an economist.
Judith was able to persuade her family to relocate to Missoula, Montana, and later Amherst, Massachusetts so that she could pursue a Ph.D. in Economics. Along the way she taught at UMass as well as two colleges in the local area, and discovered that, as much as she enjoyed research, her real love was teaching, after all. Judith received her Ph.D. in 2001 and began her teaching here at Castleton that fall. She enjoys telling her students from her first-hand experience that knowledge really is power.
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Graduate coursework, University of Montana
M.A., University of Massachusetts at Amherst
B.A., Syracuse University