The

Good

Economy

Lab


Rediscovering
Human Flourishing

Our Team.

Researchers

Our scholars are active Catholic University research faculty interested in unpacking the Good Economy. They hail from diverse fields including business, economics, sociology, theology and beyond.

Anthony P. Cannizzaro, Ph.D.

Dr. Cannizzaro is Associate Professor of International Business and Strategic Management, director of the International Business Program, and Associate Dean of Faculty at the Busch School of Business. He is also the founder of the Good Economy Lab where he leads the Good Institutions and Organizations Project, and academic director of Catholic University's Family Business Consortium. His academic interests lay at the intersection of business, government, and civil society. His academic training is interdisciplinary, synthesizing theory from international strategy with complementary areas such as institutional economics, political economy, and economic sociology to address questions around multinational investment and the common good.

Catherine R. Pakaluk, Ph.D.

Dr. Pakaluk is Associate Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought, and the founder of the Busch School's Social Research academic area and the founder of the Sowell Economic Teaching Fellows program. Formerly, she was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy. Dr. Pakaluk is the 2015 recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award, a prize given for “significant contributions to the study of the relationship between religion and economic liberty.”

Frédéric E. Sautet, Ph.D.

Dr. Sautet is an economist who specializes in market process, entrepreneurship research, and political economy. He teaches entrepreneurship theory, history of business and entrepreneurship, and management and organizations at the Busch School of Business. He is an Associate Professor, director of the Strategy, Management & Operations academic area, and director of the Entrepreneurship Program. He is also a co-founder of the Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship where he is the director of the Röpke-Wojtyła Fellowship and leads the Ciocca Scholars Conference.

Paul Radich, Ph.D.

Dr. Radich is Assistant Professor of Marketing and Social Thought and former Director of the Marketing Area at the Busch School of Business. He is a Röpke-Wojtyła Fellow and has an interdisciplinary background, drawing from marketing, philosophy, and political economy. His research centers on the role of the economy in fostering the common good and human dignity. And that includes the role of virtue and religion in moderating the economy. Specifically, he studies the pivotal role of virtue, faith, and transcendence in the lives of entrepreneurs, workers, and consumers.

Advisors

Our advisors are business, government, civil society and other academic thought leaders dedicated to realizing the Good Economy.

Andreas Widmer

Andreas Widmer is Associate Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Busch School of Business, and director and co-founder of the Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship. He was previously the co-founder of The SEVEN Fund, a philanthropic organization promoting enterprise solutions to poverty. He is the author of The Pope & the CEO: Pope Saint John Paul II's Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, a book exploring leadership lessons that Widmer learned serving as a Swiss Guard protecting Pope John Paul II and refined during his career as a successful business executive.

Brandon Vaidyanathan, Ph.D.

Dr. Vaidyanathan is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Sociology at the Catholic University of America. His research examines the role of culture in religious, economic, and scientific institutions around the world. His work includes publications in journals such as Social Problems, Social Forces, Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, and Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and two books: Mercenaries and Missionaries: Capitalism and Catholicism in the Global South (Cornell University Press, 2019), and Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Current Research Assistants

Our students are the heart and soul of the Good Economy Lab. To support students researching the role the market economy plays in promoting human flourishing, please Contact Us.

Megan Witt

Megan Witt is a 2021 graduate of the Busch School of Business with a bachelors degree in International Business. After receiving her degree, Megan joined the Institute for Human Ecology's Master's in Human Rights program. She works with Dr. Cannizzaro on issues related to human rights and the common good in business, and Dr. Radich on research related transcendence and human flourishing.

Past Research Assistants

Our past student researchers go on to be entrepreneurs, innovators and thought leaders in their own right.

Christina Rimbey

Lt. Christina Rimbey is a 2018 graduate of the Busch School of Business with a bachelors degree in International Business. Formerly head of the ROTC for the District of Columbia, she is now a Second Lieutenant and Brigade Adjutant with the US Army.


Joseph Enzler

Joseph Enzler is a 2019 graduate of the Busch School of Business with a bachelors degree in International Business. After receiving his degree, Joseph went on to become a Civitas Dei Fellow, and to earn a Masters in Human Rights from CUA's Institute for Human Ecology.


Hannah Herron

Hannah Herron is a 2019 graduate of the Busch School of Business with a bachelors degree in Management. After receiving her degree, Hannah went on to earn her Masters in International Political Economy from University College Dublin.


Emma Pederson

Emma Pederson is a 2019 graduate of the Busch School of Business with a dual degree in International Business and German Studies. After receiving her degree, Emma went on to work at the Goethe Institut in Washington, DC.


Hannah Garrison

Hannah Garrison is a 2017 graduate of the Catholic University with a bachelors degree in Psychology and minor in International Business. After receiving her degree, Hannah went on to work as an international consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, and a management consultant for Accenture.