Débora “Deb” M. Nunes is an assistant professor of economics at Monmouth University. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from Colorado State University, where she also served as an instructor and research assistant. During her time at CSU, she taught a wide range of courses, including macroeconomics, microeconomics, international trade and policy, history of economic thought, and gender in the economy. In addition to her teaching, Nunes was a graduate research assistant for Feminist Economics, participated in multiple student-led committees, and was a founding member and general secretary of United Campus Workers (UCW-CSU, Local 7799 CWA).

She holds both a master’s degree in development economics and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil). In 2012, she was awarded a Bra-Mex full scholarship to attend the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE, Mexico) as an invited student. Her trilingual academic background and multilingual research proficiency allow her to connect meaningfully with Latino students, who often seek her office hours for personalized attention in Spanish or Portuguese. This linguistic versatility also strengthens her ability to engage with international scholarship, utilizing non-English references and datasets to enrich her research.

Beyond academia, Nunes has diverse professional experience. She has held internships at the Central Bank of Brazil and the Southern Brazil Regional Development Bank. In the private sector, she owned and managed a cultural production company in Brazil. She worked on securing and executing grants for independent Latin American artists, and produced mega concerts, international art exhibitions, and alternative art performances across South America. Alongside her work in the cultural sector, she pursued a career as a professional dancer for several years. While economics ultimately became her primary focus, she remains passionate about the performing arts as an enthusiastic audience member (and continues to dance, as a hobby).

Nunes’s research spans international economics and development, the history of economic thought, Latin American studies, gender in the economy, and macro political economy. Her work has been published in journals such as Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Review of Radical Political Economics, and Feminist Economics, and she serves as a referee for several leading academic publications. She frequently presents her ongoing research at national and international conferences and is actively involved in the broader economics community, currently serving on the Steering Committee of the Union for Radical Political Economy (URPE) and the Central Committee of Grupo Pesquisa em Economia Política (GPEP). Outside of academia, she is the unofficial happy-hour and potluck organizer among friends—specializing in Brazilian churrasco cook-offs, where she brings the same dedication and strategic thinking that she does to her research.