Dr. Christa Court has been promoted to associate professor, a well-deserved recognition of her impactful work since joining our department in 2016.
Court, who specializes in regional economics, uses her expertise to carry out interdisciplinary research and extension work in her role as Director of the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program (EIAP).
In it’s simplest terms, Court said the discipline of regional economics (or regional science more broadly) is the study of “what is where, why, and so what?!”.
Leading the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program
Court first joined the department as an assistant scientist, and took over the role of Director for the EIAP in 2019. Housed within the Food and Resource Economics Department, the EIAP has three main focuses for their research and extension work.
The first focus measures the scope and structure of local economies, and their relationships with the state, national, and global economies. The program’s second focus seeks to understand the relationships between natural resources and economic activity. Finally, the EIAP specializes in disaster analysis, quantifying the influence of hazard events, such as hurricanes, oil spills, harmful algal blooms, or pandemics, on economic activity.
“We ensure that relevant, reliable, and actionable data and insights from unbiased research efforts in the areas of regional economics and disaster impact analysis are communicated to a variety of audiences to inform the decision-making processes of individuals, local communities, industry groups, and government agencies (local, state, and federal),” Court said.
Mentoring Fellow Researchers
What Court enjoys most about her role, however, is the opportunity to mentor fellow economists. In addition to serving on many students graduate committees, Court also regularly employs Postdoctoral associates and undergraduate research assistants to work on projects with the Economic Impact Analysis Program.
“My proudest moments during my time at FRE are often the achievements of my mentees,” Court said. “I find myself smiling the most when I see students successfully defend their master’s theses or Ph.D. dissertations, students and early-career researchers receiving honors and awards for their accomplishments, and hearing about accepted job offers that will launch their own careers when they complete their time at UF. Of course, that last one always makes me a bit sad as well!”
To learn more about Dr. Court, visit her department faculty page. For more information about her work with the UF/IFAS EIAP, visit the program website.
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