McDonald’s CEO headlines UC's Alpaugh Awards

The Alpaugh Family Economics Center celebrates teachers with message from atop the golden arches

Cincinnati and McDonald’s have a long history of connections.

It was here that the fish sandwich was invented, in 1963, to respond to the city’s Roman Catholic patrons who give up meat during Lent; the city is home to the largest Ronald McDonald house in the world; and it even has a bridge, the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, colloquially dubbed “The Big Mac” bridge, for its similarity to the restaurant chain’s golden arches.

Little wonder, then, that the president and chief executive officer of McDonald’s, Chris Kempczinski, a Cincinnati native son, was a perfect match to give the virtual keynote speech at the University of Cincinnati’s Alpaugh Family Economics Center 2021 Awards ceremony.

Kempczinski is a graduate of Indian Hill High School, and his father, Richard Kempczinski, was chief of vascular surgery at UC Health Medical Center.  

“Education and training can unlock a world of potential,” Kempczinski says in a video address celebrating teachers whose efforts bring financial education to school children. The Alpaugh Center, Kempczinski noted, “has undertaken the responsibility for teaching these skills to the next generation.”   

For more than four decades the Alpaugh Family Economic Center has worked to teach economic and financial literacy, reaching elementary school children and teachers across the nation. The center is home to an award-winning online financial program called $martPath, engages in partnerships for the financial education of the larger community, and is home to a research team to serve businesses and governmental partners in the region.

The center began as a teacher training initiative of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce in 1976. In 1977, the center was incorporated and established a permanent existence at UC.

headshot of Julia Heath

UC economist and Alpaugh Center Executive Director Julia Heath

Kempczinski was invited to give the address given his ties to the Cincinnati community and because “he is a strong proponent of economic and financial education, recognizing how important it is for our children to learn these lessons very early to give them the ability to live their best lives,” said the center’s executive director, Julia Heath, a professor of economics who holds the Alpaugh Family chair in economics at UC.

UC’s President Neville G. Pinto also delivered a speech, connecting the center’s efforts to deliver financial education to all students to UC’s Next Lives Here mission.

Featured image at top: The Alpaugh Center is home to an award-winning online financial program called $martPath. Photo/Alpaugh Center

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The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.

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