Travis Roach 

Travis Roach, Ph.D., is an associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Economics at the University of Central Oklahoma. He is also the founding director of the Central Policy Institute, an interdisciplinary research center housed in the College of Business.

Roach originally hails from Austin, Texas, and made his way to Oklahoma by way of Lubbock, Texas, where he completed his doctorate in economics. After completing his doctorate, Roach served as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Wind Institute where he taught courses on wind energy economics, policy and law. Prior to living on the windy plains of West Texas, he attended the University of North Texas where he received a B.A. in music and a B.S. in economics with honors.

Roach's research interests are in the fields of economic policy, environmental economics, labor economics and industrial organization. His research has focused on the negative impacts of particulate matter pollution, carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, education outcomes and human capital development, and even crime economics. This research has been featured in news coverage around the world including on the Marketplace Morning Report, Bloomberg, S&P Global, The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, the Sydney Morning Herald of Australia, and the Tyee in British Columbia, Canada. 

In his free time, he likes working in the garden planting native plants with his wife, Anna, and visiting local breweries with his rambunctious dog.