St. Louis Fed Honors Professor for Contributions to Economic Education

ST. LOUIS – Betty Porter-Walls is the recipient of the 2024 Economic Educator Advisory Board Educator of the Year Award from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The award is given annually to recognize a board member for his or her commitment to economic and financial education.

Porter-Walls, retired associate professor at Harris Stowe State University, was honored at a May 8 dinner at the St. Louis Fed for helping to connect educators with St. Louis Fed teaching resources. She has served on the St. Louis Fed’s Educator Advisory Board for many years, said Eva Johnston, senior economic education specialist and board coordinator.

The board is composed of local teachers who review curriculum, attend meetings, present at events and contribute in other ways to the success of the St. Louis Fed economic education program, Econ Ed at the Fed.

“Betty Porter-Walls is an inspiring, devoted educator who is a role model and motivator for teachers across a wide range of curricula. She is tireless in her efforts to help teachers understand and adopt the best practices to help their students,” Johnston said. “We are deeply grateful for her work on our Economic Educator Advisory Board.”

St Louis Fed Economic Education Officer Scott Wolla expressed his gratitude for the service of Porter-Walls and Johnston, who is retiring from the St. Louis Fed on June 30.

“Eva has been an exceptional economic education practitioner and ‘teacher of teachers’ in her 10 years at the St. Louis Fed. She has inspired hundreds of educators across the nation to delve deeper into how they teach economics and created lessons and other resources that made their teaching more effective and engaging for students,” Wolla said. “Her positivity, encouragement and expertise will be missed by the many educators she inspired and all of us at the St. Louis Fed.”

Among her many activities, Porter-Walls is the facilitator of the Beginning Teacher Assistance Program for the St. Louis Public Schools and was president of the Missouri Association of Colleges for Teaching Education in 2019. She also has organized “read-ins” for International Reading Day.

In addition to teacher professional development consulting for 1st Class Educator Group, Porter-Walls has presented at the Write to Learn, Early Learning, and Interface (STEM) Conferences in Missouri and nationally for the International Literacy Association, National Council of Teachers of English, National Network for Educational Renewal, and the American Educational Research Association.

Internationally, Porter-Walls has provided professional development in Iceland, Germany and Senegal. She presented her noted “Literacy is a Family Affair Project” at the Hawaii International Conference on Education.

She has received numerous honors/awards, including those from the governor of Missouri, Harris-Stowe State University, University of Missouri-Columbia, B’Nai B’rith and the St. Louis American newspaper.

The St. Louis Fed’s Econ Ed at the Fed offers more than 400 free educational resources about economics, personal finance, money and banking. In addition, the St. Louis Fed’s Econ Lowdown™ teacher portal allows teachers to create a syllabus of resources and assign the syllabus to students. The St. Louis Fed’s lessons, videos, online courses and more are free and available for pre-K through college, as well as for parents and other consumers.