Chad Hart is a professor in economics and extension economist with Iowa State University. Chad was born and raised in southwest Missouri and his parents raised a few cattle and operated a small meat locker. Chad received a B.S. in economics with minors in mathematics, history, and astronomy from Southwest Missouri State University in 1991. He moved to Iowa in the summer of 1991 to pursue graduate education, and received a Ph.D. in economics and statistics in 1999 from Iowa State University.