LaPorchia A. Collins

LaPorchia Collins is a Ph.D. candidate who presently holds concurrent appointments as a University Fellow and Graduate Teaching Fellow. For her efforts in research, LaPorchia was awarded a Summer Research Opportunities Program Fellowship. Her commitment to teaching excellence has also received recognition by faculty in the AED Economics Department, and she was recently awarded the 2015 Bernie Erven Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award.

LaPorchia's current research uses household-level data and reduced form econometric models to examine how the retail food environment influences the dietary choices of U.S. households. LaPorchia's research experience also goes beyond the U.S. context. She recently co-authored a publication in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics that examined the effects of information asymmetries between spouses on agricultural production and efficiency in Southern Ghana.

LaPorchia has twice instructed an interdisciplinary, upper-level undergraduate course entitled "Food, Population, and the Environment"; and, she is currently participating in the Ohio State Teaching Enhancement Program's Graduate Teaching Fellows Learning Community. As Graduate Teaching Fellow, LaPorchia organized and currently manages a guest lecturing initiative to increase teaching opportunities for her peers.

Through an internship with the Ohio Department of Transportation, LaPorchia has also gained experience doing applied research to inform government decisions.

Specialization: Development Economics
Advisor: Elena Irwin