Martha Stuffler Economics Instructor Phone: (949) 451-5759 Email: mstuffler@ivc.edu Web: http://faculty.ivc.edu/mstuffler                        Martha Stuffler Biography Since my first adjunct teaching assignment at Irvine Valley College in January 1989, I have been teaching principles of economics. During August 1997, I became full-time faculty and currently serve as the academic chair for the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. As a re-entry student who attended both Saddleback and Irvine Valley Colleges, I received a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in economics from California State University, Fullerton. Within economics, my areas of primary interest are macroeconomic policies and institutions that provide an environment conducive for economic development and growth.  While teaching economics is my passion and personally very rewarding, it is of secondary importance to my professional vision to create and use innovative teaching techniques to convey that economics is a way of thinking about problems and choices that students will use throughout their lives.      While coming to education from a business background, I still maintain business sector ties by holding seats on several directorate boards of privately held corporations. My business experience integrated management, accounting and forecasting within the service sector. One day as I was staring at Catalina Island from my office window, a vision of myself with white hair doing the same job caused me to resign from a successful career. Opining that there must be more to life, I enjoyed a lot of social lunches and played many sets of tennis. Later for fun, I returned to college for a class in probability and statistics. I enjoyed the course and enrolled for others. Realizing that it would be wise to pursue a degree and finish my CPA, en route I discovered my passion for economics and for helping students to learn the economic way of thinking. With a life course charted, my goal was to become an economics instructor with the South Orange County Community College District. I am pleased to have achieved this vocational goal.   When I am not teaching, I enjoy the beach, boating, the beach, running, the beach, water, and the beach with my husband of 36 years. While I am very tempted to learn to use inline skates, I am certain that my lack of coordination would mean massive injuries to me and other innocent victims. Instead I confine my activities to diving, snorkeling, and traveling as much as possible.  Each summer we spend at least one month in Maui—someone has to or should—might as well be us. My husband is a kite surfer and we both enjoy the warm Hawaiian waters. I look forward to my sabbatical during the 2003-2004 academic year to research and observe economies in transition that include the fifteen newly independent countries (NICs) of the former Soviet Union and Baltic states; the Central/Eastern European (CEE) nations including Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and East Germany; the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) which is undergoing economic liberalization and privatization; and the African nations that are in varying stages of economic development since achieving their independence.