The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has added two Northern Michigan University economics department faculty members to its Board of Scholars, according to a press release. Tawni Ferrarini and Hugo Eyzaguirre join other academic and business leaders who "support and contribute to the center’s mission of improving the quality of life in Michigan through high-quality, public policy research that promotes the benefits of free markets, limited government and the rule of law."

They will be among 28 Board of Scholar members who teach at higher education institutions in the state.  

Ferrarini is the Sam M. Cohodas Professor of Private Enterprise and associate director of the NMU Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship. She consults worldwide with organizations on matters related to economic growth and development through private enterprise, with a focus on K-16 economic education and financial literacy.

Ferrarini was president of the National Association of Economic Educators in 2015 and has received numerous awards, including the 2012 Council on Economic Education’s Albert Beekhuis Center Award, the 2010 Michigan Council on Economic Education Educator’s Award, and the 2009 National Association of Economic Educator's Abbejean Kehler Technology Award. She was named a distinguished faculty member at NMU in 2009. Among other work, she is a co-author of Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity" and Focus: Understanding Economics in U.S. History.  

Eyzaguirre is an associate professor of economics and director of the NMU Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the NMU Academic Senate, Committee on Internationalization, and the Educational Technological Resources and Policies Committee. Off campus, he chairs the International Committee of the National Association of Economic Educators and is a member of the Association of Private Enterprise Education.

Eyzaguirre started the first center for economic education in Peru at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima, where he taught and did research. He has also worked as a consultant and researcher, focusing on institutional economics and competition and regulatory issues, and has numerous publications on these topics.