Dr. Brian Fikkert is the Founder and Executive Director of Covenant College's Chalmers Center for Economic Development, as well as an Economics and Community Development Professor. Dr. Fikkert is a Ph.D. holder. Yale University, with a degree in economics, concentrating in Third World economic development and international economics. Dr. Fikkert has worked with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the US Agency for International Development as a consultant. He was a professor at the University of Maryland in a research fellow at the Center for Institutional Transformation and the Informal Sector before coming to Covenant College. Dr. Fikkert being a sought-after speaker who has authored a number of scholarly and popular works, the most recent of which is When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself.