In 1946, Leonard E. Read established the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) as the original free market education organization in the U.S. Eighty years later, the mission remains the same: to inspire, educate, and connect future leaders with the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society.
In its 80th Anniversary year, FEE created awards to celebrate and honor those thinkers and educators who have done the most to inspire the next generation with the power of economic thinking.
Economist of the Year
The Economist of the Year Award honors an economist whose scholarship and public engagement have made an outstanding contribution to economic understanding in the public square. Recipients demonstrate intellectual rigor and independence, a commitment to the principles of a free society, and the ability to inspire others to see the world through an economic lens.
2026 WINNER
Vincent Geloso
Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University
Vincent Geloso has emerged as a leading empirical critic of modern narratives about economic inequality. By reconstructing historical datasets, testing assumptions, and exposing flawed measurements, he shows that influential claims about inequality, stagnation, and immobility often rest on fragile foundations. His work reveals a more dynamic reality: rising living standards, meaningful mobility, and expanding opportunity through economic freedom. In more than 250 opinion essays across the U.S., Canada, and France, Geloso brings this evidence into public debate. His forthcoming book, The Great Enrichment, offers a new history of American growth and inequality.
Educator of the Year
For Excellence in Teaching
The Educator of the Year Award is presented to a teacher, professor, or online educator who has made an outstanding contribution to bringing the ideas of a free society into the classroom. It honors educators who awaken learners to the importance of free markets, individual liberty, and human dignity—and who bring these ideas to life for the next generation.
2026 WINNER
Vann Walker Prime
Mount Hebron High School
Over more than two decades at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, Maryland, Vann Walker Prime has built an extraordinary record as a teacher, coach, and program builder. He founded Mount Hebron’s AP Economics program, teaching more than 2,000 students with consistently exceptional results. Prime has coached students to 11 national economics championships, 15 appearances in national finals, and 24 Maryland state championships. Prime also coached for Team USA at the International Economics Olympiad, where his students earned global team gold and bronze medals, multiple individual gold medals, and the world distinction of “Best in Economics.”
Enterprising Founder of the Year
The Enterprising Founder of the Year Award is presented to an education entrepreneur who has demonstrated exceptional vision, tenacity, and commitment in building innovative, family-responsive learning models that expand educational freedom. It honors founders who are actively building the kind of education families want and students deserve, grounded in free exchange, individual dignity, and human flourishing.
2026 WINNER
Tiffany Thenor
CEO, WonderHere
A former public school teacher turned entrepreneur, Thenor has built a career challenging conventional assumptions about schooling by launching project-based schools centered on curiosity, relationships, and hands-on learning. Under her leadership, WonderHere has grown from a small Florida farm campus into a multi-site model serving students through personalized learning, mixed-age collaboration, strong parent partnership, and meaningful assessment. WonderHere was named a 2025 Yass Prize Finalist, recognizing bold and transformational innovation in education.
The Rebecca Dunn Scholarship of the Year
for Excellence in the Ideas of a Free Society
Presented annually to one outstanding participant of FEE’s Summer Campus whose engagement with the program reflects the highest standard of intellectual seriousness, genuine curiosity, and personal character. This participant best embodies what it means to take political and economic freedom seriously and makes it their own through the seminar programming and workshops.
2026 WINNER
Victoria Oltean
Victoria Oltean is the inaugural recipient of the Rebecca Dunn Scholarship, awarded at FEE’s Spirit of Liberty Summer Campus for the intellectual seriousness, curiosity, and character the award was created to honor. Selected from a cohort of 150 students, Victoria won the campus-wide essay competition during her week in the Philosophy track, where she explored ideas of liberty, virtue, and human flourishing. A recent Georgia State University Honors College graduate (B.A. Political Science, summa cum laude), Victoria’s academic work traces the philosophical roots of the American founding, research that also earned her a TEDx talk and a Presidential Fellowship with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. After the summer, FEE hired her to be an Educator Engagement Associate.