The 2024-25 academic year finds the AEDE department saying farewell to three outstanding, long-serving faculty members: Mario Miranda, Anna Parkman and Mark Partridge.
Dr. Mario Miranda, who joined Ohio State in 1988, served as a Professor within the Department and is a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. His research produced an influential book, which has been adopted for courses offered by seven of the top ten ranked doctoral programs in Economics in the world, and over 70 peer-reviewed articles, two of which are among the three most frequently cited articles on “agricultural insurance”. He advised 28 doctoral students to completion, including four winners and honorable mention recipients of the Applied and Agricultural Economics Association Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.
Dr. Miranda served as AEDE Director of Graduate Programs for seven years and was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Computational Economics. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Chicago Board of Trade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the International Water Management Institute, and numerous private corporations. He made over 170 presentations to professional and academic audiences and has worked on major research projects or taught courses in Bolivia, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana, Honduras, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa, and Tanzania. He was also the recipient of numerous awards, including the CFAES Outstanding Teaching Award, OARDC Outstanding Research Award, CFAES Rodney F. Plimpton Outstanding Teacher Award, and Gamma Sigma Delta Research Award of Merit.
Dr. Anna Parkman joined AEDE as a lecturer in 2016 and for nine years has served as the AAE internship coordinator in addition to five years as the Undergraduate Program Leader. In 2023, she was promoted to Professor of Practice with the full support of her department colleagues. Dr. Parkman also served on University and college committees focusing on curriculum, teaching and learning. In AEDE, she served as Chair of the AEDE Academic Affairs Committee since Autumn 2021, after serving on the committee for five years. Prior to coming to Ohio State, she was the Director of the MBA Program at Ohio Dominican University and the Chair of the Jones Division of Business at the University of Charleston. As a professor, she brought years of experience in teaching, assessment and curriculum management to AEDE. Her primary focus over her entire career was creating meaningful learning interactions for her students. When she informed a student that the course he signed up for might make him uncomfortable on occasion, he responded “All your courses make me uncomfortable at some point, Dr. Parkman. That’s why I take them.”
Dr. Parkman’s research has focused on understanding barriers that keep individuals from achieving their capacities in their careers. Most recently she has published and presented on stereotype threat and imposter syndrome.
Dr. Mark Partridge had a distinguished 18-and-half-year career at The Ohio State University, serving as the Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy. His teaching, research, and service were in regional economics, emphasizing rural economic development and well-being. Dr. Partridge’s service as the Swank Chair was highly valuable, engaging with the program’s advisory committee to produce issue briefs and public presentations on important policy issues, testifying to the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Senate on areas of his expertise, and winning an important professional service award in 2013 (the David Boyce NARSC Award for Service to Regional Science.) Dr. Partridge was also an exceptional educator. He was a stellar classroom teacher in both undergraduate and graduate classes and an award-winning mentor of PhD students. He served as advisor or co-advisor for 29 AEDE Ph.D. students who won 15 different research awards and went on to work at prestigious positions in government and academia.
Dr. Partridge received many accolades for his research. Since arriving at Ohio State, he published 118 peer-reviewed academic journal articles and was PI or Co-PI for $5.754 million in funded research from organizations including the NSF, World Bank, and USDA.
Thank you to Mario, Anna and Mark for your many years of service to AEDE!