About Professor Phillip S. Coles
Most economists don't begin their careers studying insects.
Mine began much earlier, growing up in inner city neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and later McKeesport in the shadow of a steel mill. As a boy, I dreamed of becoming a biologist. I was fascinated by the natural world, particularly fish, even though there was little in my surroundings
Most economists don't begin their careers studying insects.
Mine began much earlier, growing up in inner city neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and later McKeesport in the shadow of a steel mill. As a boy, I dreamed of becoming a biologist. I was fascinated by the natural world, particularly fish, even though there was little in my surroundings to suggest that such a path was possible. I lived for the two weeks we spent camping at Pymatuning Lake every year. I entered college as a biology major at The Pennsylvania State University working as a roofer, landscaper and fixing cars and doing home remodleing to help pay tuition.
After discovering the difficulties of finding employment with a biology degree I shifted to general agriculture, then entomology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Everything changed during my first entomology course, when my teaching assistant, Dan Rinker, a PhD graduate student studying arthropod pests of cultivated mushrooms got me hooked on mushroom research. My first job in the lab was squishing mushroom flies of the family Phoridae between two plexiglass plates looking for parasitoid nematodes that fed on these flies.
That introduction led to an internship at a Chester County grower that sparked a fascination with mushrooms that would shape the next three decades of my life. What began as an interest in science gradually evolved into a career in commercial mushroom production. For more than 35 years, I worked as a grower, researcher, business owner and consultant. Although my work shifted from the laboratory to the marketplace, I never stopped thinking like a scientist and applying scientific method to mushroom production.
Teaching also became part of my journey decades before entering academia full time. While working in the mushroom industry during the day, I taught science as an adjunct instructor at a community college in the evenings. After earning my MBA from Lehigh University, I began teaching international business as an adjunct at a local universit
Teaching also became part of my journey decades before entering academia full time. While working in the mushroom industry during the day, I taught science as an adjunct instructor at a community college in the evenings. After earning my MBA from Lehigh University, I began teaching international business as an adjunct at a local university. Those experiences convinced me that higher education was where I ultimately belonged.
That realization led me to make one of the most significant decisions of my career. I left the mushroom farm to return to graduate school full time, earning a Master's Degree in Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. During that period, I also served as an adjunct instructor in business strategy at Syracuse University.
Following Cornell, I taught agricultural business and microeconomics as an adjunct at The Pennsylvania State University before joining Lehigh University as a full-time faculty member. Today, I am a Teaching Full Professor of Supply Chain Management at Lehigh, where I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in supply chain management as well as executive education classes.
Although I am a full-time teaching professor, I do research and participate in grants.
I never learned to write in college. I learned much later in life from the greatest English teacher, an industry colleague, William Barber.
I have since published in top agricultural science journals such as The Journal of Economic Entomology, Plant Disease and HortScience, some of them while I was still in industry. In addition, I have pu
I never learned to write in college. I learned much later in life from the greatest English teacher, an industry colleague, William Barber.
I have since published in top agricultural science journals such as The Journal of Economic Entomology, Plant Disease and HortScience, some of them while I was still in industry. In addition, I have published in top business and economics journals such as Production and Operations Management, Production Planning & Control, Sustainable Futures, Benchmarking: An International Journal and Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.
My scholarship, writing, and public commentary reflect an uncommon perspective shaped by both academic training and decades of real-world business experience. I have published in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Hill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reading Eagle and the Washington Examiner, and as a columnist for Discourse Magazine, as well as trade magazines such as Supply Chain Management Review, Biocycle and Mushroom News.
I have been quoted in several leading business and finance media outlets including The Associated Press, US News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News and WFMZ-TV on issues in economics, agriculture, and supply chains.
In the fall of 2026, I begin doctoral studies in Business Administration at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, continuing a lifelong commitment to learning and to connecting academic research with practical experience.
The Buggy Economist is the product of that journey— a place where economics, agriculture, biology, business, and public policy intersect.