Travis Mountain named Extension specialist, assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics
Travis Mountain has been named Extension specialist and assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
He is one of eight new faculty members recently hired in the college. New positions were identified to bring new talent to its focus areas, including food and health, infectious disease, biodesign and processing, and agricultural profitability and environmental sustainability. The new faculty members are distributed across teaching, research, and Extension.
Mountain received his bachelor's degree in consumer science and his master's degree in consumer behavior and family economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Ph.D. in family resource management from Ohio State University.
His area of concentration as an Extension specialist is the financial and economic well-being of the households and communities of Virginia. His research interests include life insurance adequacy, food security, and mortgage selection decision behavior. He is also a member of the NC 2172 multi-state research team focusing on “behavioral economics and financial decision making and information management across the lifespan." The team is currently working on a post-secondary education financing project and has future plans to examine Social Security and retirement.
He is the recipient of the Ruth Jane Yauger Scholarship 2014-2015 and placed third in the Hayes Forum Research Competition in 2014. He is a member of the American Council of Consumer Interests and the Academy of Financial Services.
