Athens, Ga. – Brenda Cude, a housing and consumer economics professor in the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences, has been named a Distinguished Fellow by the American Council on Consumer Interests. She was recognized at the annual ACCI conference in Milwaukee, Wis., earlier this month.
Distinguished Fellows are recognized leaders in the consumer field who have contributed significantly to ACCI and have displayed high standards of professional and ethical conduct throughout their careers.
Cude’s research focuses on how consumers acquire and use information before making buying decisions. Most recently, she has studied the quality and quantity of information online. Cude also represents the consumer perspective in policy discussions to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
As an instructor, Cude teaches concepts and practices of consumer protection, consumer policy and online consumer behavior. In 2008, she was named a UGA Senior Teaching Fellow and inducted into the UGA Teaching Academy. She also directs the Georgia Peer Financial Counseling Program and is associate director for personal financial literacy in the UGA Center for Economic Education.
Cude is research director for the UGA Housing and Demographics Research Center and serves on the board of directors of the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association and the Journal of Consumer Affairs Editorial Board. She also is a member of the Journal of Consumer Education Editorial Board.
Cude earned her PhD. in consumer economics from Purdue University in 1978. She holds a bachelor of science degree in home economics and a master of science degree in consumer economics from the University of Tennessee at Martin.