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The Central Connecticut State University community welcomed economist Joan Woodward as part of its annual American Savings Foundation (ASF) lecture series.
Woodward is the executive vice president of Public Policy for Travelers and president of the Travelers Institute.
The ASF lecture is one of many enrichment and learning opportunities the American Savings Foundation Endowed Chair in Banking and Finance offers to Central’s students. The endowed chair at Central was established by ASF in 2003 to support the appointment of a senior practitioner with a record of national or international recognition in banking and finance to the faculty of the School of Business in the Department of Finance.
Among the invited guests to this year’s lecture were Connecticut Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez; US Small Business Administration District Director Catherine Marx; and Connecticut General Assembly Banking Committee Ranking Member Tom Delnicki, along with ASF senior staff members Chuck Boulier, Maria Falvo, and Michael Carrier.
In welcoming more than 75 guests to campus, Central President Zulma R. Toro said, “Thanks to the generosity of the American Savings Foundation, Central can extend its impact as a dynamic partner in education that serves Greater New Britain through engaging public events; by fostering research and curriculum development; and through collaborations between academia, the private sector, and our public schools.”
Toro added, “Ms. Woodward’s wealth of experience in both the private and public sectors, her leadership in policy and corporate governance, and her commitment to social responsibility make her uniquely qualified to speak on today’s most pressing economic, public policy, and political issues.”
At Travelers, Woodward is a member of the company’s Management Committee, Operating Committee, and Environmental, Social, and Governance Committee, and she serves on the Diversity Council and the Travelers Foundation Board. She is the current chairperson of the Travelers Community Connections Campaign.
Woodward joined Travelers in 2008 from Goldman, Sachs & Co. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Woodward worked on Capitol Hill for 12 years: She was deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee working for Chairman Bill Roth, where she was instrumental in creating the Roth IRA. She also served as chief economist for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the U.S. House Budget Committee under Chairman John Kasich.
As she took the stage, Woodward emphasized that her approach to economics relies on facts and polling versus party politics.
“My goal is to walk out of here at 8 p.m. without you knowing if I’m a Democrat or a Republican,” she explained. “This is a fast paced, data-driven, analytical, nonpartisan, bipartisan presentation.”
Throughout her 82-slide lecture, Woodward illustrated the U.S. economic outlook through several metrics and decades’ worth of data, with insights on the GDP; inflation; politics and legislation; workforce trends; and elections and voting. As dynamic as the scene is in Washington, D.C., data regarding the 2024 election and the current administration’s emerging economic policies also have to be factored into any economic outlook, she noted.
As Woodward demonstrated, data often tells a very different story than prevailing sentiment among Americans. As an example, she cited the current inflation rate in the U.S., which is approximately 3 percent. In a recent study measuring how Americans feel about their own economic situation, participants still reeling from pandemic-era economic effects estimated that inflation is much higher.
“They feel awful,” she said. “They’ve gone through hell in the last three years, and so the cumulative effects of inflation in the last two or three years have added up and they feel the consumer view of inflation is at 26 percent.”
Woodward’s presentation underscored how people’s feelings about economics often influence other aspects of government — from voter attitudes and stimulus checks to rate cuts and midterm elections — which in turn influence each other.
Woodward spoke for an hour and later took questions from students, faculty, and other guests in the audience.
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Provost Kimberly Kostelis; President Zulma R. Toro; Joan Woodward of Travelers; and School of Business Dean Lisa Frank at the 2025 American Savings Foundation lecture on Feb. 26. (Photo by Shelly Sindland)