Helen Roberts
Director
Professor
Center for Economic Education, Economics
Contact
Address:
721 UH
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About
Helen H. Roberts is Clinical Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She is also Director of the UIC Center for Economic Education (UIC-CEE), and has been at the UIC-CEE since its founding in 2000. Professor Roberts has been at UIC since 1996.
Professor Roberts received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago (1995) and has held permanent and visiting appointments at the University of Chicago, Dominican University, and UIC. Professor Roberts has conducted research in International Trade, Industrial Organization, and Applied Game Theory. She is currently working on the effectiveness of educational and financial literacy programs.
Professor Roberts has conducted numerous meetings, conferences, and workshops for the UIC-CEE. The UIC-CEE provides workshops for teachers, parents, and students in economics, consumer economics, and financial literacy, conducts research, and develops curriculum in these fields. Professor Roberts was the recipient of the 2001 "Rookie of the Year" Award by the National Association of Economic Educators. In November 2002, she was a recipient of the first Money$mart Award by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer. In October 2009, the UIC-CEE was awarded the national Beekhuis Award for Outstanding Center for Economic Education.
Prior to her life as an Economist, Professor Roberts was a Kindergarten teacher and Music Educator. She has taught students at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and at Bret Harte Elementary School (a Chicago Public School). She is a past president of the Blaine Paperback Bookstore, a parent-volunteer bookstore in an elementary school, which has given her many excuses for continuing to read classic children's books. She has played the oboe in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Oak Park-River Forest Symphony, University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Chamber Orchestra. She has performed chamber music in numerous venues in the Chicago area and was a founding member of the Trio Con Brio and the Prevailing Winds Woodwind Quintet.