Michael Disher

Job Title

• Assistant Professor of Economics
  Business, College of Arts and Sciences

Highlight

Assistant Professor of Economics

Started at Bethel

2023

Education

• Wheaton College - B.A. in Economics, 2016
• University of Illinois - M.A. in Economics, 2023
• University of Illinois - Ph.D. in Economics, 2023

Biography

Michael Disher is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Bethel University. He researches topics in the economics of crime and criminal justice, urban economics and public economics. As a researcher, his goal is to better understand the challenges facing the urban poor and how the actions of the public sector affect their lives.

Michael grew up just outside Chicago and studied economics at Wheaton College. During his college years, he worked as a calculus teaching assistant and as a camp counselor, and discovered he loved teaching and mentoring. While participating in an experiential learning program focused on urban and global poverty, he became excited about economics research and its usefulness for thinking about social inequalities – and decided to pursue his PhD. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, he taught microeconomics and researched a variety of topics: segregation, immigration enforcement and policing, criminal justice and mental health, income tax policy, and Medicaid.

During his time in Chicago, he lived on Chicago’s West Side, where he mentored local high schoolers and was part of a community church focused on serving the neighborhood. In his free time, he loves playing basketball and trying new cuisines. He and his wife live in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul and are part of a church in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.