Originally from Naperville, Illinois, Prof. Gourley earned a bachelors in economics and English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Following graduation he moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and taught English at Pannasastra University. After serving as a research assistant in 2011 under the late Prof. Werner Baer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he began graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2016 he was awarded a Ph.D. in economics, with a dissertation titled "Three Essays in Applied Microeconometrics".