Barry Wood is the VOA radio and television economics correspondent covering US and global economic developments. He also covers European affairs, particularly the Balkans. For three years in the mid-1990s he was the VOA bureau chief in Prague, specializing on the transformation to free markets in central and eastern Europe. Barry joined VOA in the late 1970s from Johannesburg, where he had spent three years as a freelance correspondent in the southern Africa region. His first career was in academia, teaching economics and social science, most recently at Western Michigan University. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics. Here in Washington he has twice been a short-term scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, examining economic issues in eastern Europe. He is married with three children. He can be reached at bwood@voanews.com. | 