Joshua Foster studies the choices people make with money, the rules that shape those choices, and the ways organisations can improve decisions. His work connects economics with practical questions about fundraising, workplace learning and artificial intelligence.
An assistant professor at Ivey Business School, Western University, he has built a career through teaching, research and business projects. His interests extend from charity auctions to digital tutors that help students explain their thinking.
This article concerns the economist at Ivey in Canada. Other people share his name, so their personal details, jobs and news should not be attached to his biography.
Joshua Foster Quick Bio
| Detail | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Professional name | Joshua Foster |
| Academic name | Joshua R. Foster |
| Occupation | Economist, researcher and university professor |
| Institution | Ivey Business School, Western University |
| Department | Business, Economics and Public Policy |
| Childhood | Northern Maine, United States |
| Birthplace | Exact location not confirmed |
| Date of birth | Not verified |
| Age | Not confirmed |
| Nationality | Citizenship not verified |
| Education | Economics degrees from Bentley University and the University of Arkansas |
| Spouse | Identity not confirmed |
| Children | A daughter mentioned in a 2021 interview |
| Parents | Both described as entrepreneurs |
| Height and weight | Not verified |
| Religion and ethnicity | Not verified |
| Net worth | No reliable figure established |
| Business involvement | Thrive Mind Consulting and Transform Workplaces |
Joshua Foster Early Life and Family Background
Foster grew up in a small farming community in northern Maine, close to New Brunswick. His childhood combined outdoor activities with an early view of business life.
Both parents were entrepreneurs. In a university interview, he recalled hearing discussions about cash flow, staffing and strategy at home. These were everyday concerns for his family, giving him an early introduction to how businesses operate.
He also spent time fishing, canoeing and camping during summer, then skiing in winter. That account offers a clear picture of his upbringing without establishing his exact birthplace.
Parents and Early Influences
Foster has described his family as an important influence on his attitude towards work. Teachers and business leaders also helped guide him.
His parents’ names and detailed business histories have not been verified. Their entrepreneurial background is supported by his own account, but it should not be expanded into claims about family wealth.
Education and the Path into Economics
Foster earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Bentley University in 2009. He completed a PhD in Economics at the University of Arkansas in 2014.
University also introduced him to academic careers. He explained that he had not known anyone with a PhD before college. Meeting a friend whose parents held doctorates helped him understand what working in academia could involve.
A Book That Shaped His Interests
Foster has credited Freakonomics with strengthening his interest in economics. The book uses economic thinking to explore questions beyond traditional business topics.
That broad approach fits his later work. Rather than limiting economics to prices and markets, he examines how incentives, social connections and the design of choices affect behaviour.
Joshua Foster Career Overview
His career includes teaching roles at three institutions, along with research and practical projects. The available record supports a clear timeline.
Early Teaching and Whitman College
Ivey’s faculty biography states that Foster has taught microeconomics subjects since 2010. This predates his completed doctorate and should not be confused with the start of a permanent professorship.
After earning his PhD in 2014, he worked as an assistant professor at Whitman College. He remained there for two years before moving to Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Foster joined the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh as an assistant professor in 2016. His CV also records an associate professor appointment without tenure in 2021.
During this stage, his work covered microeconomics, experimental methods and fundraising. His teaching included subjects such as business statistics, industrial organisation and behavioural economics.
Joining Ivey Business School
Foster joined Ivey in July 2021. His position sits within Business, Economics and Public Policy.
His teaching at Ivey has included Behavioural Economics and Economics, Markets and Strategy. These subjects connect economic ideas with the choices managers face in organisations.
His broader teaching interests include econometrics, computational economics and field experiments. Together, they show a focus on both economic theory and methods for testing it.
Research: Fundraising, Auctions and Human Choices
Foster studies fundraising for charities and commercial organisations. Charity auctions and crowdfunding campaigns are central parts of this work.
An auction is more than a sale. Its rules determine who pays, how much they pay and what risks the organiser faces. Changing those rules can alter participation and financial results.
Why Auction Design Matters
A charity may care about dependable income as much as the highest possible return. Foster’s research explores how auction structures relate to those concerns.
His paper Auctions for Risk-averse Non-profits, written with Jeffrey Carpenter and Peter Hans Matthews, was published in the Journal of Public Economics in 2025.
Other work addresses social networks in crowdfunding, online ratings and consumer responses to expected shortages. These topics share a practical concern: how the environment changes decisions.
Testing Ideas with Evidence
Foster uses laboratory and field experiments. These methods allow researchers to compare behaviour under different conditions rather than rely only on assumptions.
His publication record also includes workplace training research, demonstrating how economic and behavioural methods can address organisational problems beyond fundraising.
Business Ventures and Companies
Foster’s professional work extends beyond university teaching. Ivey identifies him as a co-founder of Thrive Mind Consulting, LLC, and a co-creator of Transform Workplaces.
Thrive Mind Consulting
His co-founder role is documented, but reliable details about company revenue, ownership percentages and his personal earnings are not established in the material reviewed.
It would therefore be inaccurate to describe the company as evidence of a particular fortune or business valuation.
Transform Workplaces
Foster developed Transform Workplaces with Shannon Rawski. The project provides online sexual harassment training aimed at interns and people beginning their careers.
This connects with his research on training design. The central question is whether the way training is delivered changes how people understand and respond to it.
Joshua Foster Net Worth, Salary and Income
There is no reliable, verified total for Foster’s net worth. His academic position and business involvement do not reveal his assets, debts or investments.
A third-party database reproducing Ontario salary disclosures gives his 2025 university salary as CAD 177,959.49. That figure has not been independently checked against the original government entry for this article.
It should be treated as a secondary-source figure for a specific year, not a confirmed current salary.
Sources of Income
University employment is his documented professional income base. Consulting activity could provide additional earnings, but no verified personal amounts were established.
Research grants also need careful treatment. Money awarded to support a project is not automatically personal pay and cannot be added to a net-worth estimate.
The same distinction applies to company revenue. Business income and an owner’s personal wealth are different measures.
Personal Life, Age and Physical Details
Foster mentioned a three-year-old daughter in an August 2021 university interview. He described visiting playgrounds in London with her.
That statement confirms a family detail at that time. It does not establish his current number of children or provide a complete account of his private life.
Marriage and Family Privacy
The reviewed sources do not establish the identity of a husband, wife or partner. A spouse’s name should not be inferred from a colleague or business collaborator.
His date of birth and exact age are also unverified. Graduation dates cannot reliably establish either.
No dependable measurements for height or weight were found. Religion, ethnicity and citizenship remain unconfirmed, while his accent cannot responsibly be classified from written biographical material.
Latest Career Developments and AI Work
As of October 2026, Foster’s recent work includes artificial intelligence in education and organisational decisions.
He developed Sidekick, an AI tutoring platform used in Ivey teaching. According to the school, the platform works with materials supplied by faculty and asks students to explain their reasoning.
Recognition for Teaching
Western University named Foster a recipient of its 2025–26 Award for Innovations in Technology-Enhanced Teaching.
This provides clear recognition of his educational work. It is a stronger measure of achievement than unsupported claims about fame or influence.
AI and Economic Decisions
A May 2026 Ivey feature discussed his work on whether AI decisions align with organisational values.
In July 2026, a paper with Joy Buchanan, The Innate Economic Preferences of Language Models, became available as a preprint. A preprint shares research before confirmed journal publication; it should not automatically be described as peer reviewed.
Joshua Foster Contributions and Continuing Career
Foster’s career brings together fundraising research, business education, workplace training and AI tools. These areas connect through an interest in how people and organisations make choices.
His contribution is best assessed through published studies, teaching and documented projects. Since his career remains active, a final judgement about his legacy would be premature.
For students, this approach makes economics easier to connect with daily life. A donation page, a training course and a digital tutor each present choices in a particular way. Studying those choices can reveal where a design helps people and where it creates problems. The value of this work depends on evidence: what participants actually do, what changes under different conditions, and whether the results hold beyond one setting. Those questions give his varied projects a shared direction and practical purpose.
What can be established is a steady move from economics training into practical research and educational development. His work shows how questions about incentives and behaviour can reach from a charity auction to a university classroom.
FAQs
Who is Joshua Foster?
Joshua Foster is an economist and assistant professor at Ivey Business School, Western University, Canada. His work covers behavioural economics, fundraising, charity auctions and artificial intelligence.
What is Joshua Foster’s educational background?
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Bentley University in 2009 and a PhD in Economics from the University of Arkansas in 2014.
What is Joshua Foster’s net worth?
His net worth is not verified. Available details about his university employment and business ventures do not establish his total assets, investments or debts.
What businesses has Joshua Foster helped create?
He is a co-founder of Thrive Mind Consulting, LLC, and a co-creator of Transform Workplaces, an online sexual harassment training project developed with Shannon Rawski.
What is Joshua Foster’s role in AI education?
He developed Sidekick, an AI tutoring platform that uses faculty-provided materials and encourages students to explain their reasoning. He also received Western University’s 2025–26 Award for Innovations in Technology-Enhanced Teaching.
