USM Economics Alumni Panel

Please join the USM Economics department for a panel discussion featuring three alumni of our program. The event will be held on Zoom.

Our panelists will be

Averi Varney 

Averi is serving as the Interim Executive Director for the Hancock County Planning Commission. She graduated with a B.A. in Economics in 2021.

Michael Havlin 

Michael is currently an Economist for the Federal Maritime Commission in Washington DC. He was previously an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over his 7 years as a federal economist his work and research is primarily on inflation, international trade, and competition analysis in the supply chain industries. Research of his on inflation has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Yahoo Finance. Before moving to Washington DC Michael studied economics at the University of Southern Maine, and Public Policy at UMass Amherst. In his work, Michael attempts to leverage the critical analysis skills provided by a Marxist perspective with the empirical rigor provided by traditional economics. Michael lives with his wife in Southeast DC. They spend their time walking around the city.

Matt Hopkins 

Matt Hopkins is a senior researcher for the Academic-Industry Research Network (AIRnet), a 501(c)(3) non-profit research organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 2012, he has worked at AIRnet, collaborating with its president, Prof. William Lazonick, on a range of issues related to corporate governance, innovation, and industrial performance. Meanwhile, since 2018, he pursued a PhD in Economics at SOAS University of London, completing all the requirements for his Ph.D. in December 2023. His thesis is titled, “Strategic Control and the Role of Executive Compensation in the Innovation or Financialization of Firms”. His current research into the electric vehicle industry is being funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking. His papers and publications can be found on the websites of the Institute for New Economic thinking, the Harvard Business Review, the Oxford University Press, and media outlets such as the Atlantic or Huffington Post.

Matt’s research interests include the innovation process, the finance of innovation, executive compensation, government-business collaboration, and the national and global dynamics of industrial development. He holds a Master’s degree from the former Department of Regional Economic and Social Development at UMass Lowell, and was named the department’s graduate student of the year in 2010. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in Economics and English from the University of Southern Maine.