Professor Daniel Owens is passionate about teaching both Economics and the JCCC student community.  Photo By: Josiah Ann Nelson

For Dan Owens, an economics professor at Johnson County Community College, the subject can explain more than inflation, production costs or supply and demand. It can explain why someone should leave a movie they aren’t enjoying or why people sometimes struggle to walk away from situations simply because they’ve already invested time in them. 

“What econ is really about is a smarter way of thinking about choices,” Owens said. 

He encourages students to look beyond the field’s reputation for mathematics and business. His classes connect economic principles to everyday decisions while emphasizing critical thinking, discussion and the importance of understanding perspectives different from their own. 

That attention to perspective goes both ways. After reading an assignment response from his student Lilli Shay, Owens took the time to tell her he appreciated her point of view. 

“He retained the information I wrote and made an effort to give me a compliment,” Shay wrote in an email. “He took extra steps he did not necessarily have to, to make me feel valued.” 

Owens’ path to teaching began with an interest in social studies. After studying economics and German as an undergraduate and spending time abroad in Germany and Spain, he was working at a bookstore on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City when a colleague told him about a tutoring opportunity at JCCC. He started out helping students with math before moving into a part-time economics teaching position. The move gave him a chance to share a subject he had come to appreciate for its ability to explain the world. 

“It’s an approach that kind of takes an analytical view of social problems,” Owens said. 

Students might expect an economics course to revolve around numbers and formulas, but Owens’ introductory classes are largely verbal, requiring students to develop new vocabulary and learn to think through problems. He uses familiar examples to make abstract concepts easier to understand. Walking out of a bad movie after 10 or 15 minutes, for instance, illustrates sunk costs. The money spent on the ticket is already gone, and staying because of that expense won’t get it back. 

During an interview, he illustrated diminishing marginal utility with a box of 10 chocolates, asking which piece would taste the best. 

The reply came with a little hesitation and a chuckle: “Probably the first one.” 

“The first one is correct,” Owens said, before adding with a grin that by the third piece, “I’m starting to hate myself.” 

Each additional bite, in other words, brings a little less satisfaction than the one before. 

Despite the humor, his teaching style is more structured than some might expect. At the start of each class, Owens has students put away their phones, earbuds and smartwatches. He also requires attendance and encourages handwritten notes, which he sees as both a learning tool and an opportunity for artistic expression. 

That structure is meant to keep students engaged with the material rather than dividing their attention between class and their devices. 

“What we do in class helps students on their tests,” Owens said. “When you’re working an assignment and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, he talked about that in class,’ that makes you want to come to class.” 

Former student Hailey Jordan, who took his class last semester, described Owens as a professor who keeps students engaged and remains approachable when students run into him outside class. 

“He’s actually pretty funny,” Jordan said, adding that Owens sometimes likes to pick on students for fun. 

He also reminded her of the people she grew up around. 

“For some reason he reminds me of all my relatives,” Jordan said. “Just that outgoing personality … that makes it easy to interact with.” 

Shay noticed the same energy. 

“He is the type of person you probably would not be able to tell if he was having a bad day,” Shay wrote. “He seems to be joyful all of the time, and that definitely reflects in the way he teaches.” 

Each student also gets a day for a one-on-one conversation with Owens after class, whether for advice or just a check-in. According to Shay, he remembers those conversations and takes a genuine interest in students’ lives. 

In class discussions, Owens wants students to understand perspectives beyond their own. During debates about the minimum wage, he pushes students to consider arguments on both sides, even when they personally favor one position. 

“They’re not monsters,” Owens said of people students disagree with. “You’ve got to spend time thinking about why the people you disagree with hold their views.” 

In his view, learning to understand opposing views is part of becoming an informed citizen and voter. He also encourages students to question the pessimism that often surrounds discussions of social progress, and he hopes they leave his classroom more optimistic and better equipped to evaluate information and make decisions than when they arrived. 

For Owens, that’s the reward of the job. 

“I enjoy the beatitude of economic happiness, which is that I found something I love doing and then I found somebody who will pay me to do it,” Owens said. 

Asked whether she would recommend Owens’ class to someone else, Jordan didn’t need time to think it over. 

“Oh, yeah.”