MARIO F. TEISL, Ph.D. (Curriculum Vitae)
Director, School of Policy and International Affairs
Professor, School of Economics
Dr. Mario Teisl has a long history of personal and professional international experience. His parents (immigrants from the Balkans) exposed him to hisheritage at an early age (including sending him to spend several summers withgrandparents in Croatia and Slovenia). After college, Mario joined the Peace Corps and spent two months in Puerto Rico forcross-cultural and technical training. He then spent three years as a volunteer in Papua New Guinea wherehe worked on two economic development projects(one on the coast with a marine fisheries cooperative, the other in the highlands with a farmer’s cooperative).
Mario returned to the US taking the ‘long way home’ traveling to New Zealand and throughout Southeast Asia. During these travels he had informational interviews with personnel from international aid and development agencies. These experiences and interviews led him to obtain an MS (University of Maine) and then a PhD (University of Maryland) in Agricultural and Resource Economics.
After obtaining his PhD and working for two years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Mario obtained a position as an Assistant Professor in the old Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics (now School of Economics). Mario’s main research agenda focuses on how health and environmental information affects market behavior and measuring the effects of information on social welfare. A primary application of this research is the testing and designing of environmental and health labeling policies, which in the last 15 years has been a major and growing component of international business and trade relations. This is because labeling policies are compliant with international trading rules (under the WTO) whereas many traditional trade policies (tariffs, quotas etc.) are not. As a result, his research has increasingly focused on the international dimensions of labeling policy (and of environmental policies in general).
Mario’s research has been of interest to international scholars and policy makers, as evidenced by his invitations to present at international workshops, being invited to spend a year as a Fulbright Research/Teaching Scholar at the University of Zagreb (Croatia) and a summer as a Visiting Researcher at the French National Institute in Nancy, and having articles published in several international journals (at least one translated into Italian).
Mario has performed successfully in several leadership positions on campus. He has served on the School of Economics’ Policy Advisory and Peer Action Committees and as Graduate Coordinator. At the university level, he has served on Faculty Senate, was Chair of the Student Conduct Committee and has served on several Graduate School Committees (e.g. Curriculum Committee, Grad Board).
Mario has been a strong and enthusiastic supporter of SPIA and its mission. He joined SPIA in its formative stages, being on its Planning Committee and on its Program Advisory Committee. He was the primary developer and author of the International Environmental Policy Concentration under SPIA’s new MA in Global Policy and developed and taught a new course (ECO-450 International Environmental Economics and Policy) to support this concentration.
Back to Staff
