Norman Cloutier: Community Engaged Learning and Research Award

Norman “Norm” Cloutier is a professor (emeritus) in the Economics Department at University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Norm Cloutier received a BA in economics from Drew University in 1976. He earned his PhD in economics from West Virginia University in 1981 and joined the UW-Parkside Economics Department that same year. Cloutier conducts research on local economic development, labor market conditions, economic inequality, and economics pedagogy. His teaching interests are in the areas of economic principles, labor and sports economics, and econometric methods. He is a three-time recipient of the UW-Parkside Stella C. Gray Teaching Excellence Award.

In 1999, Cloutier was a member of a small team of UW-Parkside faculty and administrators who attended the American Association of Higher Education in San Diego with the mission of exploring ways to formalize our campus commitment to community-based learning and research. Subsequently, he was appointed as one of the founding members of the Advisory Committee for the Institute of Community-Based Learning, a precursor to the Center for Community Partnerships.

According to Dr. Thomas Schnaubelt, former Dean for Community Engagement & Civic Learning, Cloutier’s research, along with his co-author Dennis Kaufman, “…featured prominently in UW-Parkside’s successful application to become Wisconsin’s first postsecondary institution to receive the Carnegie Foundation’s elective classification of Community Engagement.”

In 2004, Cloutier received the Wisconsin Idea Fellow designation by the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents for his contributions to economic development issues. In 2018, his report, co-authored with UW-Parkside student Carolyn Eastman, on labor market conditions in the City of Racine was used as the underlying support for Higher Expectations of Racine County being awarded a $1.5 million grant to improve labor market outcomes for single mothers. In 2019, he led a research team of UW-Parkside faculty and staff to generate the underlying data for a report on The Status of Women in Kenosha and Racine Counties, which will be published in fall 2019.

Congratulations, Norm Cloutier!