HSB Economics Professor Kevin Duncan Awarded Highest Honor
Release Date: January 07, 2020
Dr. Kevin Duncan, professor of economics in the Hasan School of Business (HSB) at Colorado State University-Pueblo, is the recipient of the inaugural CSU-Pueblo Distinguished University Professor award. The award is the university’s highest honor bestowed on a CSU-Pueblo faculty member and recognizes teaching, research/scholarship/creative activity, and service to CSU-Pueblo and the community.
CSU-Pueblo president Timothy Mottet presented Duncan with the award on Monday, January 6 at CSU-Pueblo’s opening spring 2020 Convocation held in the Occhiato Student Center Ballroom on the CSU-Pueblo campus.
“Through a rigorous and competitive peer-reviewed process, Dr. Kevin Duncan emerged as our university’s first Distinguished University Professor. I’m incredibly proud of Dr. Duncan who is most deserving of this honor and title,” said Mottet.
“Receiving the Distinguished University Professor award recognizes Dr. Duncan’s outstanding and exceptional record of sustained teaching, research, and service, including 14 performance and teaching awards at CSU-Pueblo; his research impacting national, state, and local economic policy, specifically in the areas of labor and wages; and his work overseeing student research in numerous economic impact studies,” said Mottet.
Duncan was selected by the Distinguished University Professor Selection Committee from a pool of nominated faculty members. Committee members included Bev Allen, associate professor of library services, department chair, university archivist and records manager, Tim Peters, assistant professor of education, Jeff Piquette, associate dean of the College of Education, Ida Whited, finance professor, and Frank Zizza, professor of mathematics.
In their recommendation to CSU-Pueblo provost Mohamed Abdelrahman, committee members noted that in his 25 years at CSU-Pueblo, Dr. Duncan clearly demonstrated sustained exceptional performance in the areas of teaching, in addition to the student research experience he provides.
“Professor Duncan is in the top five faculty members every semester as rated by HSB students, including many semesters when he is the highest rated professor at HSB,” said Bruce Raymond, Dean of CSU-Pueblo’s HSB.
But it’s not only students who respect Professor Duncan. “A few years ago I surveyed all HSB faculty to ask who was most respected by the rest of the faculty members; Professor Duncan was ranked number one by his peers,” said Raymond.
Aun Hassan, associate professor of economics, wrote in his nomination letter for Duncan, “In sum, Professor Duncan is an exceptional scholar and teacher who has made significant and unique contributions to his students, the university, community and profession.”
"All faculty make unique and significant contributions, so I am honored and humbled by this award,” said Duncan. “I wish to thank President Mottet and Dean Raymond for their efforts in creating this award that will benefit future faculty as well as the university. I am grateful to professors Hassan and Shah for their award nomination and endorsement," Duncan added.
Other faculty nominated for the award included George Dallam, professor, exercise science and health promotion, Matt Harris, professor, history, philosophy and political science, Roberto Mejias, professor of computer information systems, Juan Morales, associate professor of English and the director of creative writing, Kristy Proctor, professor analytical chemistry, and Alegria Ribadeneira, associate professor, director of world languages, assistant chair for English and world languages.
Duncan, who began his career at CSU-Pueblo in 1994, teaches business and regional economics in the HSB and has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. Noted for his exceptional teaching skills, Duncan has earned six awards since 1996 for teaching excellence.
Duncan’s teaching is guided by the belief that the best way to learn and understand the usefulness of economic concepts is through application. As a consequence, projects in all his graduate and undergraduate classes involve data collection, analysis, and write ups. As examples of his work, students have completed economic impact studies. Other student research has measured tuition sensitivity at CSU-Pueblo, the ability of Pueblo to attract primary employers, and other studies of the local economy.
In addition to his acclaimed teaching skills, Duncan’s research has been used to inform construction labor market policy in 24 states and the U.S. House of Representatives. His research on prevailing wage laws has appeared in leading national and international peer-reviewed academic journals such as Construction Management and Economics (University of Reading, UK), Industrial and Labor Relations Review (Cornell University), and Industrial Relations (UC Berkeley). In June of 2019, Colorado House Speaker KC Becker appointed Dr. Duncan to the Family and Medical Leave Implementation Task Force.
He received his Ph. D. in Economics from the University of Utah and his BA in Economics from the University of California, Riverside.
In addition to a monetary award, Duncan will be asked to conduct a workshop in a topic of his choice for faculty during this spring semester, as well as deliver the Distinguished University Professor Lecture, which is open to the public, on a topic of his choice during fall 2020. Duncan will also serve on the Distinguished University Professor Selection Committee.
The Distinguished University Professor designation will be part of his formal title and will remain part of his title upon retirement, at which time he will become Distinguished University Professor Emeriti.
