{"id":3030,"date":"2016-10-12T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2016-10-31T15:48:08","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T20:48:08","slug":"spotlight-on-katie-wick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/2016\/10\/12\/spotlight-on-katie-wick\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Katie Wick"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.

Dr. Katie Wick<\/p><\/div>\n

What is your educational background?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I was drawn to the University of Virginia for my undergraduate education.\u00a0 The campus is a magical place steeped in history and tradition.\u00a0 When I came to UVA, I was convinced I was going to be a doctor, and as I was taking my first course in chemistry I realized that I was going to have to slog and push myself through my prerequisites for medical school.\u00a0 Simultaneously, I happened to enroll in principles of microeconomics with 550 other undergraduates and the class made my heart sing! I decided I need to dive into economics further.<\/p>\n

My game theory and experimental economics classes convinced me to make the study of economics my future. Strategy, games, choices, and decisions came alive in the economics laboratory, and I simply had to find a way to get to graduate school to study further.\u00a0 With the guidance of my advisor, I applied to experimental graduate programs and received an amazing offer from the University of Pittsburgh where the real work in economics began.<\/p>\n

\"Playing

Playing economics games with handheld devices out on the famous UVA lawn with my experimental economics class (that’s me on the very far right in the red and my advisor\/professor right next to me). This was a big deal since it was WAY before iPads!<\/p><\/div>\n

After two to three years of the basic course work (basic is a misnomer since it was scary hard), I started my research in experiments.\u00a0 My dissertation was based around two experiments I designed to test efficiency in public good giving.\u00a0 It was such a thrill to conduct every aspect of the experiment and see it take shape from just an idea to the design then the programming, the recruiting of subjects, the running of the experiment in the laboratory, and the analysis afterward.\u00a0 The day I defended my dissertation was almost as exciting as the days I welcomed my children into the world!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is your work background?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll notice the narrative of my work history exactly coincides with the development of my family.\u00a0 My first professor job was at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA where I was blessed with amazing students who loved economics as well as game theory and experiments.\u00a0 At the end of my very first week of work, our first foster child came to live with us, a little boy named Braden who we had the privilege of later adopting. Concurrently, my husband was in his family medicine residency, and when he graduated, he would begin active duty with the Air Force due to the terms of his medical school scholarship.\u00a0 After two years of working at Allegheny, my husband was given orders to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, TX, which we had to look up on a map! God went before us to provide a community of support including an amazing church and friends.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.

Dr. Matthew Wick, then a captain in the USAF on his first day of active duty service at Dyess with our 2-year-old son Braden.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was 30+ weeks with our second child when we moved to Abilene, and I took two years off from teaching to be with our small kids.\u00a0 I missed being with students and teaching, and I reached out to the academic community in town.\u00a0 I started teaching part-time at McMurry in the fall of 2012 when I was 36 weeks pregnant with our 3rd<\/sup> child! I had missed the excitement of the first day of school in those two years away.\u00a0 That was a busy semester!<\/p>\n\n\t\t