Annamaria Lusardi, the Denit Trust Endowed Chair of Economics and Accountancy at the George Washington University School of Business, has been appointed to the distinguished position of University Professor.
Few faculty members achieve this position, and it is the highest active faculty position codified by GW’s Faculty Code. To be appointed to the rank of University Professor, faculty members must have a stellar record of nationally or internationally recognized research and scholarship and be recognized as being at the forefront of the work in their field.
Dr. Lusardi’s appointment as University Professor is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2020.
Dr. Lusardi’s research focuses on financial literacy and personal finance decisions. She is the founder and academic director of GWSB’s Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC), and in 2017, she was included in the Clarivate Analytics’ list of the world’s most impactful scientific researchers, ranked among the top 1 percent of economics and business researchers. Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) lists her among the top 15 female economists, and she has more than 33,700 Google citations for her research.
She has received numerous national and international research awards, including the 2018 Ketchum Prize from FINRA Investor Education, the 2018 Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Faculty Scholarship, the 2017 Skandia Research Award on Long-Term Savings and the 2015 Financial Literacy Award from the International Federation of Finance Museums.
In 2018, she received an honorary Doctor of Science degree in economics and business administration from the University of Vaasa in Finland.
Dr. Lusardi has been teaching a personal finance course at GWSB since 2013. Through this professorship, she hopes to expand the reach of that course to all GW students, undergraduate and graduate, from any GW school.
She would like to focus future research on the consequences of the current economic crisis, and, in particular, how we can help people become more financially resilient and better able to face financial shocks—small and large.
“In financial health, as in physical health, prevention is better and cheaper than a cure,” Dr. Lusardi said. “My many years of research and teaching have convinced me that financial literacy is an essential skill—one that we all need if we are to thrive in today’s society. It allows us to better understand the world we live in, to make better choices, and to live happier lives.”
