A True Measure of Success

by Anna Mitchael

Dr. Steve Green didn’t set out to teach. Looking back at the arc of his 40-year career as an Economics professor at the Hankamer School of Business, along with the number of students who have been profoundly changed by time in his classroom, it’s hard to fathom an alternate choice. But he very clearly recalls the fork in the road that came after a year working outside academia at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

“I wasn’t sure how many lives I would be able to affect in that role,” Dr. Green said. “Then I thought, if I teach, I probably can make at least one life better each year.”

Dr. Green recognizes that, far too often, people lose sight of the power of that metric – to change a life and better one person’s path. Once decided, Steve didn’t waver from his choice. As he stepped into the classroom at Baylor and then continued deepening his impact as years went on, his guiding principle remained: Stay focused on how you can improve a student’s journey. How can you help form character as this next generation is preparing to launch into the world?

Dr. Green’s first pursuit in his own undergraduate work had been mathematics. Fairly quickly he found himself drawn to economics as a discipline that applied analytics to real-world thinking. What began as a practical shift became his lifelong intellectual pursuit. Economics, he notes, often reveals truths that are not immediately obvious.

“The study offers ways to look at the world that challenge initial assumptions and invite deeper inquiry,” he said.

That curiosity has never ebbed, and it has become the thread he most wants to pass on to students: teaching them to see the world in ways that go beyond assumption or stereotype, then use that reasoning to make a positive change. In the classroom, Dr. Green focuses less on the accumulation of knowledge and more on the development of perspective. He emphasizes ideas that extend beyond economics into leadership, decision-making and everyday life.

“If, 20 years from now, a student comes back and says the most important thing they learned is that incentives matter,” he said, “then my life is complete.”

For Dr. Green, the simplicity is the point: when students carry that principle forward, they have a new framework for understanding the world. This serves them well in business, but its reach is also broader, shaping decisions and behavior far beyond the workplace.

The Distinguished Professor Award offers a moment to reflect on the legacy of students he has impacted. Dr. Green is quick to deflect attention from his own accomplishments.

“What it ultimately represents,” he said, “is the possibility that my work has made a difference – something confirmed not by an award, but when students come back and say they still remember and use something from class.”

After decades of teaching, Dr. Green’s influence continues in precisely the way it began. Not confined to a soundbite or reflected in accolades. His metric is in lives affected, student character formed and lessons carried forward. It’s the slow and steady amassing of people who can look back and point to the difference a lecture made.

“It’s a really good career,” Dr. Green said, with the same humility he’s carried throughout his tenure. “I’m grateful.”