Francisco Pérez is a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His dissertation evaluates the independence and effectiveness of the Central Bank of West African States’ monetary policy. Before his doctoral studies, Pérez worked on development projects in Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. He is also the Director of the Center for Popular Economics, a nonprofit collective of political economists whose programs and publications demystify the economy and put useful economic tools in the hands of people fighting for social and economic justice. He is committed to “popular education,” which encourages the teacher to relate the material to students’ lives and to learn from their students; it is meant to be interactive and encourage participation. The goal is for students to feel more confident about their knowledge of economics, and in their ability to follow contemporary debates about economic policy.