Robert Duvall

Remarks: Financial Literacy and the Education System; Making Education Aspirationally Relevant

Dr. Robert Fenton Duvall came to the Council for Economic Education headquartered in New York City, as its President and Chief Executive Officer in 1995. Prior to joining the Council for Economic Education, he was President of Pacific University in Oregon.

The Council for Economic Education (www.councilforeconed.org) is a not-for-profit, independent organization that envisions a world in which people are empowered through economic and financial literacy to make informed and responsible choices throughout their lives as consumers, savers, investors, workers, citizens, and participants in our global economy.

Leading the Council, Duvall is on the forefront of a global effort to improve the effective understanding of basic and applied principles of economics and personal financial decision-making skills, with the goal of preparing and empowering every young person to make the most of their human capital in a challenging and complex global economy.

Under Duvall’s direction and leadership, the Council for Economic Education has developed an award-winning comprehensive Program; created innovative initiatives to extend reach and deepen impact via the Internet; written and published Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics; and convened and conducted the first-ever National Summits on Economic and Financial Literacy, working with the Federal Reserve and other partners and associations, in 2002, 2005, and 2008.  Revenues for the Council’s pace-setting programs in economic and financial literacy under Duvall's direction have increased 300%, from $4 million in 1995 to over $15 million in 2008.

Duvall has become a national, and international, spokesperson for the value of improving economic, financial and entrepreneurship education by making it a core component of the pre-college curriculum.  He has addressed numerous conferences of education and business leaders, testified for Senate and House Committees, and been interviewed on ABC, CNBC, CBS Market Watch, and National Public Television and Radio, in the cause of economic and financial literacy.

In January 2008, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, and now serves under President Obama.

Duvall received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Whitworth College; and in 1995, his alma mater awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Duvall has his M.A. and Ph.D. from The Claremont Graduate University.  He has served on the faculty and administration of Pitzer College, Claremont, California; Rollins College, Florida; and the University of Pennsylvania; and was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England, in 1992.

He is also a proud father, frustrated tennis player, passionate opera fan, and published poet. He resides in New York City, where he loves to walk and watch.