Common Hour Speaker Anand R. Marri ’95 Urges Financial Literacy

Anand Marri visited Bowdoin on Oct. 13 to give a Common Hour talk about the importance of economic and financial literacy. “The point of the education…that we try to promote across the country is to create active and engaged democratic citizens, and that means you understand the economic forces that affect your lives,” he said.

Marri currently serves as the highest-ranking officer for education for the Federal Reserve System nationwide and has achieved widespread recognition as an authority on education for young people on economic literacy topics. He also serves as a tenured professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Economic literacy, Marri continued in his talk, can basically be broken down into thee parts: understanding fiscal policy, monetary policy, and personal finances. “I argue that all three are related,” he said.

After noting that Americans in general aren’t great at saving and investing, he also offered some tips on how to improve in both these areas.

Marri has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and several chapters, has contributed articles to CNN and The New York Times, and serves on the editorial board of several leading journals. He has received over $5.5 million in grants from organizations such as Carnegie Corporation of NY, Joyce Cowin Foundation, NYS Education Department, Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Spencer Foundation, US Department of Education, and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He earned a PhD at the University of Wisconsin Madison, an AM at Stanford University, and an AB at Bowdoin College.