My Story
I’m a Professor of Economics and happily married mom, homeschooling two amazing kids. I live a very good life in rural Tennessee, just north of Nashville. For fun, I enjoy scuba diving and spending time at our little cabin in the woods. I serve on the Board of Directors and Class Coordinator for RAISE Family Co-op, a weekly enrichment co-op for homeschool families in Robertson County.
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Anyone who knew me in my younger days would have predicted a very different outcome. I grew up on a small farm near Morgantown, WV and learned all the wrong lessons about life from my parents. At 16, I escaped that home with the help of friends, a lawyer, and a judge. Then, while being carted around to various foster homes, I convinced a social worker to let me marry my high school sweetheart. That got me out of the youth services shelter. I dropped out of high school and moved to Ft. Campbell. He deployed to Saudi Arabia eleven days later with the 101st Airborne during Desert Storm and returned 6 months later, changed forever. By 18, I had a GED, a few college credits and divorce papers. I was just getting started on a string of bad decisions, years of doing things the hard way and struggling just to get by.
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Frustrated and sick of being broke, I returned to college at 25 on Pell grants and student loans. In my first Econ class, it was as if I had been given a secret code book explaining how the world works. I couldn’t get enough. I started tutoring classmates so the professors would have more time to answer my questions during office hours.
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I started using economic concepts to make better decisions and change my own behavior. I found mentors, in person and in books, and worked to imitate their examples. Life seemed to speed up. At 28, I studied abroad in Cuba, crashed my 10-year high school reunion (where I met my current husband) and spent the fall semester in Italy. I graduated from WVU with a BS in Economics in 2003 and entered the Ph.D. program at George Mason University. I started teaching part-time at GMU and married that guy from the high school reunion in 2006. I finished my PhD in 2008 and started my academic career. I have continued to learn from thousands of students over the years.
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The best moments of my career, by far, have been the questions from students and my own children about how to make better decisions about money, time management, habits, and goal setting. I describe economics as the “science of decision-making”. No boring lectures required! Now that my children are a bit older and some major health problems are behind me, I am in a position to expand the ways in which I help others, outside of academia. I want to share the practical side of what I have learned, as a mentor and coach to those striving to improve their lives.
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A better life is possible with better decision-making and following through on goals. I invite you to explore the articles posted here, follow me on social media, subscribe and share this site with friends and family members who are searching for a way to improve in any of these areas.
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If you like what you see, join me in person or via Zoom for an introductory class and consider joining the Coach Biser Community (coming soon). If you have any questions, reach out to me via email at JennisBiser@gmail.com .