Zoë O. Ambargis
Program Manager
Regional Economic Analysis Division
Bureau of Economic Analysis

As program manager for the BEA’s Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II), Zoë leads the team that produces RIMS II multipliers. Most recently, she oversaw the completion of an update of RIMS II that incorporates data from the 2003 annual national input-output accounts and 2003 regional economic data. Zoë has written numerous articles on regional econometric and input-output modeling. She has served as the BEA’s representative on the North American Industry Classification (NAICS) Products Subcommittee developing a product classification system for the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector. Zoë has served as a board member of the Southern Regional Science Association and the Society of Government Economists.

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Don Bagwell
President
Digital Impact Design, Inc.

Don Bagwell is president and creative genius of Digital Impact Design, Inc., a multimedia company he founded more than 20 years ago in Cornelia, Georgia. His hallmark designs are evident in the corporate web sites, trade show exhibits, and the myriad printed publications he produces for clients. Among his well-known clients are the Cumberland Island National Seashore, auto parts giant NAPA, and the Selig Center for Economic Growth.

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Arnold B. Baker
Chief Economist
Sandia National Laboratories

Arnold B. Baker is the Chief Economist of Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico. His current responsibilities include serving as the primary strategic planning resource for the Energy & Infrastructure Assurance Business Unit, managing the Unit's economic and public policy analysis and modeling, and serving as economic and strategic planning advisor to Sandia Corporation. In addition, he is the President of the International Association for Energy Economics and former President of the United States Association (2002). He holds a B.A. in History and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Prior to joining SNL in 1996, he served for 17 years at Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), holding a number of challenging positions including Director of Political Economic Analysis, Director of Public Issues, Director of Energy Market Analysis, and Manager of Strategic Planning (ARCO Oil and Gas Company). His assignments included market analysis and scenario based planning, as well as chairing internal planning studies on the future of the oil, natural gas, coal and electricity industries. Prior to joining ARCO he served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs, and as a staff economist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. He has written book chapters and articles on energy, economic policy and global change.

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John Baldridge
Director of Survey Development
Bureau of Business and Economic Research
The University of Montana

John Baldridge is the bureau’s survey development director. He develops new quantitative and qualitative research projects for the bureau and analyzes data for clients. Mr. Baldridge earned a B.A. in political science from Simpson College and an A.M. in public policy studies from the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.

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Patrick M. Barkey
Director
Economic and Policy Studies
Ball State University

Patrick Barkey is an economist in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. In his position as director of Economic and Policy Studies, he oversees and participates in a wide variety of projects in labor market research, and state and regional economic policy issues. His recent research has been on the educational attainment of the Indiana labor force, the effect of smoking on the state economy, and the potential for high-technology development in central Indiana. His newspaper column appears in a dozen newspapers throughout the state, and his weekly statistical publication, the Indiana Business Bulletin, is relied on by banks, newspapers, and other businesses who need timely and comprehensive economic information on the state and its regions.

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Jason Blackburn
Technical Director
Digital Impact Design, Inc.

Jason Blackburn is technical director of Digital Impact Design, Inc., a multimedia company in Cornelia, Georgia. He handles all final preparations of clients’ jobs to ensure that these are ready for printing, web presentation, or trade show exhibition. His impressive knowledge of and technical expertise with the latest software make him a favorite leader of AUBER’s workshops.

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Carl Bonham
Director
University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Dr. Bonham is UHERO's executive director and associate professor in the economics department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His research interests include macroeconomics, applied econometrics, tourism economics, and the Hawaii economy. Bonham produces quarterly forecasts of the Hawaii economy, for UHERO's Economic Information System, and conducts research for private and public sector clients. Research in progress includes a VECM model of the Hawaii tourism sector, research on learning and expectations of prices and exchange rates under heterogeneous information, and a study of the impact of Hawaii's airline industry. Recent publications include "Intervention Analysis with Cointegrated Time Series: the Case of the Hawaii Hotel Room Tax," with Byron Gangnes, and "To Aggregate Pool or Neither: Testing the Rational Expectations Hypothesis Using Survey Data" with Richard Cohen. Dr. Bonham serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Travel Research, and is a member of the State of Hawaii Council on Revenues.

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Rob Brown
Chief, Regional Economic Measurement Division
Bureau of Economic Analysis

Rob Brown has been Chief of the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s (BEA) Regional Economic Measurement Division since 1995. He has spent his 32-year career as an economist at BEA working on state and county estimates of personal income and employment, including guiding the bureau’s research into improving the timeliness and quality of the state and local area personal income estimates. He is coauthor of several articles for the bureau’s publication, Survey of Current Business, including “Reliability of State Personal Income” in December 2003 and “Comprehensive Revision of State Personal Income” in March 2004.

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Alberta Charney
Senior Research Economist
Eller College of Management
The University of Arizona

Dr. Charney has been a researcher in the Economic and Business Center, Eller College of Management, at the University of Arizona since 1977, where she is considered an expert on tax policy, model building, econometric analysis, and impact analysis. Her most recent projects include a program evaluation for a U.S. Department of Commerce grant to the City of Tucson, an economic impact study of the University of Arizona, and, currently, a major survey and impact analysis of tourism in the Tucson Metropolitan Area.

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Randy Childs
Economist
Bureau of Business and Economic Research
West Virginia University

Randy is an economist at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research in the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University (WVU). Randy has conducted numerous economic development studies, including economic impact analyses, target industry studies, and labor market studies. He has analyzed the economic impact of many industries, including travel and tourism, steel, and wood products. In addition, Randy oversees the West Virginia Business and Industry Census Data Center program. Randy graduated from WVU with his master's degree in resource economics and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in economics.

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Jerry N. Conover
Director
Indiana Business Research Center
Indiana University

Dr. Jerry Conover directs the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, where he also serves on the marketing faculty. Conover oversees IBRC’s programs addressing the needs of businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations for information and analysis concerning Indiana’s economy and people. An active participant in strategic planning initiatives for economic and workforce development as well as a variety of applied research studies, Conover served AUBER as president-elect in 2004-2005.

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Jan Crispin-Little
Senior Economist
Bureau of Economic and Business Research
University of Utah

Jan Crispin-Little is the senior economist at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah. Her work is focused on economic development, impact analysis, and survey development. Most recently she has completed impact studies on military base closures in Utah, estimating the economic impacts of Utah's two public research universities and a return on investment analysis of a state-funded research program called USTAR. She is a special advisor to the Utah Governor's Council of Economic Advisors and has been a past president of the Utah Chapter of the National Association of Business Economists.

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Anja Decressin
Economist
Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program (LEHD)
U.S. Census Bureau

Dr. Decressin is an economist with the U.S. Census Bureau, Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program (LEHD). With the bureau since the fall of 2002, she worked on research projects that use linked employer-employee data. In addition, Dr. Decressin worked on Form 5500 file matching to the Census Business Register and the LEHD employer-employee data, subsequently analyzing characteristics of employers with respect to employer-provided health and pension benefits. She created longitudinal weights for the combined SIPP panels to be released with the SIPP public use data that is being created by LEHD. Dr. Decressin is currently a quarterly workforce indicators (QWI) economist, performing quality assurance analysis for data files in the QWI process, supporting outside data users, and performing quality and assurance analysis for other LEHD products.

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Steven M. Director
School of Management and Labor Relations
Rutgers University

Dr. Steven Director is principal investigator for the SHRM/Rutgers Leading Indicator of National Employment and a professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. He teaches graduate and executive education courses in labor economics and financial analysis of human resource issues. Director was also an assistant professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Michigan State University; a staff associate in employment policy at the Brookings Institution; and a consultant to U.S. and state government agencies, major corporations and unions, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences.

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Bengte Evenson
Associate Director
Center for Business and Economic Research
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Dr. Evenson is an assistant professor in the Economics Department, where she specializes in urban and regional economics, statistics, and public economics. She recently completed an analysis of local land use and regulation that was published with the Brookings-Wharton Paper on Urban Affairs. Dr. Evenson is a member of the American Economic Association, the Regional Science Association, and the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

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David K. Garman
Under Secretary of Energy

David Garman was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as Under Secretary of Energy on March 4, 2005, and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on June 15, 2005. As Under Secretary, Mr. Garman is responsible for Department of Energy activities in energy, science, and environment, with an annual budget of approximately $14 billion. Under Secretary Garman oversees the Department’s widely diversified portfolio of energy research, development, demonstration and deployment activities. Mr. Garman is also the official designated by law to hold primary responsibility for the department’s efforts on energy conservation matters. Prior to being confirmed as Under Secretary, Mr. Garman served President Bush at the Department of Energy as the Assistant Secretary for Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Prior to joining the Department of Energy, he served on the personal staff of two United States senators and on the Professional Staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Mr. Garman also represented the Senate leadership at virtually all major negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 1995-2000.

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Rick Harper
Director
Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development
University of West Florida

Rick Harper’s career as an economist began in 1979 at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina, where he was involved in all phases of various funded research projects. Rick received his Ph.D. in economics from Duke University in 1989 and joined the UWF faculty that same year. Other academic experience includes visiting appointments at ESSCA, in Angers, France; the University of Nottingham, England; and University College, Cork, Ireland. His published scholarly research is largely in the area of government policy and its effect on the business environment. Through UWF’s Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development, where he serves as director, Dr. Harper has worked with Florida businesses and government leaders on a variety of business research and economic development issues. He currently represents Northwest Florida on Governor Jeb Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors.

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Hart Hodges
Director
Center for Economic and Business Research
Western Washington University

Hart Hodges is the director of the Center for Economic and Business Research and assistant professor of economics at Western Washington University. Dr. Hodges prepares a regular economic outlook for the region and directs a variety of research projects, including impact and trend analyses, surveys, and other work for public agencies in the region. In addition, the center publishes the Northwest Journal of Business and Economics, and in May hosted the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference. Hart began his teaching career at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.

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Timothy D. Hogan
Emeritus Professor of Economics and Research Associate
L. William Seidman Research Institute
Arizona State University

Timothy D. Hogan is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Research Associate in the L. William Seidman Research Institute in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Dr. Hogan served as Director of the Seidman Institute and the Center for Business Research at ASU until he retired in 2004. He served as a member of the Executive Board and President of AUBER. In October 2004, Hogan was the first recipient of the Thayne Robson Award, established by AUBER to honor a member of the organization for outstanding service to the organization and to his or her university and state.

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Michael Hollingsworth
Systems Analyst/Programmer
Indiana Business Research Center
Indiana University

Michael Hollingsworth is the lead web developer for STATS Indiana and other interactive web sites for the Indiana Business Research Center. In addition to STATS Indiana enhancements, his current projects include a GIS-enabled site-and-building selection site for Indiana and consulting with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development on various web sites.

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Phyllis W. Isley
Director
Bureau of Business Research and Economic Development
Georgia Southern University

Dr. Isley is the director of the Bureau of Business Research and Economic Development (BBRED) at Georgia Southern University. She has held that position since joining the faculty at Georgia Southern in the fall of 1998. As the director of BBRED, Isley supervises and coordinates research in broad areas of interest to southeast Georgia. Research topics include the economic impact of Georgia’s deepwater ports, analyses of the workforce development needs, the potential economic impact of base re-alignment and closure and, a host of studies on various aspects of the tourism economy. Most recently, the BBRED completed a study of the economic impact of high school noncompletion. Dr. Isley’s other interests include painting and Taekwondo. She is a third degree black belt and certified instructor in Songahm Taekwondo.

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David Kane
Geographic Information Systems Coordinator
Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development
University of West Florida

David Kane is the GIS Coordinator for the Haas Center. His duties include assisting in the development of plans for GIS implementation, acquiring geographic data from various sources, establishing and testing thematic layers, and integrating related attributes. David has more than eight years of mapping and GIS experience in both the public and private sector, including conversion and maintenance of parcel maps for the Escambia County Property Appraiser, conversion of nautical and aeronautical charts into a GIS format for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and production of military base maps for the USAF’s Explosives Hazard Reduction Program. David is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Geography and Urban/ Regional Planning.

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Julie Klein
Tourism Research Coordinator
Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development
University of West Florida

Julie Klein is the tourism research coordinator at the Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Klein tracks tourism trends in the 5 coastal county region, participates in economic impact studies, conducts research in business and economics, performs statistical analysis, and writes articles for the Haas Center’s quarterly newsletter Northwest Florida Economy. Before coming to the Haas Center, Klein’s experience was working in economic development and community redevelopment with local government agencies.

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James A. Kurre
Director
Economic Research Institute of Erie
Penn State Erie

As director of ERIE, Dr. Kurre organizes an annual conference focusing on the state of the local and national economies, along with an annual topic of local interest. He makes frequent appearances in the local media, as well as the local rubber-chicken circuit. His current research interests include productivity variation across space, spatial cost of living differentials, and local leading indicators. He has 13 publications in refereed journals, and has presented approximately 50 papers at professional conferences. Kurre regularly works with undergraduates on funded research projects, and he serves on the advisory board for the ACCRA Cost of Living Index, as well as the AUBER Board of Directors. He was named University Alumni Teaching Fellow in 2005. In his spare time, he is a member of the comedy troupe In All Seriousness.

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Kevin Lansing
Senior Economist
Economic Research Department
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Kevin Lansing is a senior economist in the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. He is currently assigned to the Domestic Macroeconomic Studies Section. Kevin joined FRBSF in 1998 after spending two years at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, as a national fellow and a visiting scholar. Prior to that, he served as an economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He has published articles in a wide range of academic journals and taught economics as a visiting professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and at Pepperdine University. His recent research has focused on behavioral models of agents’ expectations and the implications for asset pricing and inflation. Kevin is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Licensed Professional Engineer.

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Douglas A. Lonnstrom
Director, Siena College Research Institute
Professor of Finance and Statistics
Siena College

Dr. Lonnstrom developed and conducts a monthly Consumer Confidence Index for New York State based on the national index produced by the University of Michigan. This index is used by the Federal Reserve Board, NYS Department of Labor and other business government leaders. In addition, each quarter he creates a Confidence Index for the six major cities in the state. For the past 18 years Lonnstrom has produced a business/government survey for the Capital Region of New York. He has presented several papers at national and international conferences, as well as authored several publications. He also serves on the Business Roundtable for the Capital Region and was a member of the Economic Forecast Committee for the Center for Economic Growth.

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Duncan H. Meldrum
Chief Economist
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Duncan Meldrum, Ph.D., is the chief economist for Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., a
$6 billion industrial gas and chemicals company serving customers in more than 30 countries. As chief economist, he assesses the impact of the economic environment on the company’s performance for the executive management team and develops global economic assumptions for the company’s operating plans. He provides operating groups with pricing assistance, contract support and market analyses. He also serves as the company’s economics spokesperson. Meldrum is a past president of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) and has been a NABE board member since 1999. His other professional associations include the Philadelphia Council for Business Economics, the Conference of Business Economists, the National Business Economic Issues Council, and the American Economics Association. Meldrum serves on the U.S. Census Bureau Advisory Committee of Professional Associations, and on the boards of the APCI Federal Credit Union and the nonprofit Parkette National Gymnastics Center.

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Paul Polzin
Director
Bureau of Business and Economic Research
The University of Montana

Paul Polzin is director of the bureau and a professor in the School of Business Administration's Management Department. Professor Polzin has studied the Montana economy extensively during the past 35 years. In addition to developing economic projections for the future, he conducts research on various long- and short-term economic trends in Montana and specific areas of the state. Each year, he is a featured speaker at the bureau's Montana Economic Outlook Seminasrs, which are presented in nine locations throughout the state.

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Kenneth E. Poole
Chief Executive Officer
Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness
George Mason University

In January 2000, Dr. Poole formed an independent nonprofit affiliated with George Mason University and ACCRA that is focused on developing a stronger understanding of how regional economies can compete effectively in the knowledge-based economy. As part of those efforts, Poole directs a national nonprofit membership organization (ACCRA) serving economic and community development researchers in communities, states, academia, and the private sector. As CEO of the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, Poole is undertaking organizational development, strategic planning, network building, and technical assistance efforts to foster knowledge-based economic development.

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Robert D. Potts
Assistant Director
Center for Business and Economic Research
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Robert Potts is an assistant director in Center for Business and Economic Research University of Nevada, Las Vegas, specializing in data collection and dissemination, economic impact analysis, statistical modeling, and survey research. He has become recognized as an authority on the business and economic environment of Las Vegas, the state of Nevada, and the region. Pott’s work has appeared in the Las Vegas Perspective, the Nevada Business Journal, the Southern Nevada Business Directory, the Las Vegas Housing Market Statistical Summary, the Las Vegas Housing Market Conditions, and the Southern Nevada Factbook.

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Anita Remesch
Geographic Information Systems Programmer
Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development
University of West Florida

As a geographic information systems (GIS) Programmer at the University of West Florida Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development, Anita Remesch is responsible for coordinating, integrating, and using resource data in a variety of applications to meet the Haas Center’s GIS objectives. In addition to managing resource data for the GIS systems, she also performs system and network administration functions on web, data, and SQL servers. Prior to her position at UWF, Anita was a computer specialist for the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division at the Bureau of the Census in Suitland, Maryland. At the Bureau, Anita managed the division’s UNIX and office automation servers and performed tasks that included life cycle planning, forecasting, budgetary planning, system analysis and design and procurement.

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Lee A. Reynis
Director
Institute for Applied Research Services and
the Bureau of Business and Economic Research
University of New Mexico

Dr. Lee A. Reynis is currently the director of both the Institute for Applied Research Services and the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of New Mexico. Reynis has been a close observer of the New Mexico economy for some 20 years. Before joining the BBER staff, she was the city economist for the City of Albuquerque for 12 years. Prior to that, she worked as an economic analyst and then as the chief economist for the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration in Santa Fe. Dr. Reynis has taught a number of courses over the years at the University of New Mexico and was formerly on the faculty at the University of Utah.

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Jeremiah Riethmiller
Research Assistant
Economic Research Institute of Erie
Penn State Erie

Mr. Riethmiller has worked on numerous projects for the Economic Research Institute of Erie, but has focused most of his attention on creating an index of leading economic indicators for the Erie MSA. In the summer of 2005 he interned with the Bureau of Economic Analysis in Washington D.C., where he researched the possibility of using state personal income data to forecast state revenues generated from taxes on production and imports. Riethmiller plans to graduate with honors from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in both business economics and finance in spring 2006. In addition to academics, he is also involved with Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society; the Society of Undergraduate Economists; and Beta Gamma Sigma, an international business honor society. During his free time, he enjoys outdoor activities, such as backpacking, baseball, volleyball, and canoeing.

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R. Keith Schwer
Director
Center for Business and Economic Research
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Dr. Schwer is a member of the UNLV Economics Department. Specializing in economic-impact analysis, econometric modeling, feasibility analysis, and survey research, he is an authority on the business and economic environment of Las Vegas, the region, and Nevada. Keith is a former president of AUBER and is currently a member of several professional organizations. He is executive director of Nevada KIDS COUNT and serves on the KIDS COUNT steering committee for The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

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Martin Shields
Director
Center for Economic and Community Development
Associate Professor of Agricultural and Regional Economics
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
The Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Martin Shields works in the area of regional economic development, emphasizing economic growth. He created a system of economic models that are used to examine the causes and consequences of economic change in Pennsylvania counties. These models examine how national and state economic trends work in concert with local economic and demographic characteristics to influence local employment, population, and income growth. This work is used to help decision makers identify and target potential industries for expansion and growth in their local economy. Dr. Shields also studies regional labor markets. This includes analyzing the causes and effects of local unemployment and economic restructuring. His new areas of interest include the effects of natural and cultural amenities on migration patterns and enhancing the availability of health care services in rural areas.

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Gary W. Smith
Regional Economics and Development Policy
School of Economic Sciences
Washington State University

Author of the Northwest Income Indicators Project web site (http://niip.wsu.edu) , Smith has been on the faculty of WSU’s School of Economic Sciences 1983. He holds a statewide outreach appointment with WSU Extension with specialties in regional economics and development policy. Smith present talks, organizes workshops and conferences, and conducts applied research in support of his programs across Washington. On his docket for this fall of 2005, Smith will be joining with economists from Bureau of Economic Analysis regional program to develop and deliver an outreach the program to strengthen and further the infrastructure of economic information in the Washington and the Pacific Northwest. Over his career smith has been highly involve and active in the economic organizations within the region. He is currently serving a third two-year term as president of the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference and is president of the Seattle Economist Club, the regional chapter of NABE.

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Sean Snaith
Director
Business Forecasting Center
Associate Professor of Business Economics Eberhardt School of Business
University of the Pacific

Dr. Sean Snaith is director of the Business Forecasting Center and Associate Professor of Business Economics at the Eberhardt School of Business. He has taught at Penn State, the American University in Cairo and was an economics professor at the University of North Dakota. While at the University of North Dakota also served as the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research. In addition, Snaith worked with International Planning and Research, a Boston area consulting firm, where his projects included forecasting, market sizing, economic analyses and econometric modeling for a variety of clients, including IBM, Dell, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard. He has published articles on exchange rate modeling, predicting educational outcomes, the economics of information technology, and telemedicine.

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Jim Sylvester
Director of Survey Operations and Economist
Bureau of Business and Economic Research
The University of Montana

Jim Sylvester is director of survey operations and an economist at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at The University of Montana. His primary responsibilities are demographic analysis, forecasting, and survey research. Born in Montana, he went to school in Montana, Idaho, and Nevada. He returned to Montana after college. He has a B.A. in economics from The University of Utah and a M.A. in economics from The University of Montana. He has researched the Montana economy for the bureau since 1980.

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David Talan
Branch Chief for Business
Business Employment Dynamics

Mr. Talan completed his bachelor's and master's in economics at Bowling Green State University. After graduation in 1993, he joined the Bureau of Labor Statistics and worked in the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program where he was responsible for seasonal adjustment of state employment estimates. In 2000, Mr. Talan joined the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program and is currently a branch chief responsible for the quarterly publication of Busines Employment Dynamics data.

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Ellis Tallman
Vice President Macropolicy
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Dr. Ellis Tallman is a vice president and team leader for the macropolicy group of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. His current research interests include economic forecasting, growth and economic development, and banking history. Dr. Tallman joined the staff of the Atlanta Fed in 1987. Previously, he was a research associate with Wharton Econometrics from 1980 to 1982 and an instructor in the graduate school of management at the University of Rochester in 1986. From January 1996 to December 1997, he was a visiting senior research economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia, where he engaged in policy support and economic research for the Australian central bank. He also spent time in June 1998 visiting the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the central bank of New Zealand, consulting with their forecasting and modeling group. He was promoted to his current position in August 1999.

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Tom Tanner
Project Coordinator
Carl Vinson Institute of Government
University of Georgia

Dr. Tom Tanner has worked extensively in the field of economic impact analysis and model building for organizations across the country, including the Center for Agriculture are Rural Development at Iowa State University, the Center for Economic Development at University of Wisconsin–Superior, and Regional Economic Models, Inc. in Massachusetts. Currently, Dr. Tanner works at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. For the past four years, he has been developing the largest regional economic model in the country, a 3,110-region (county level), 703-industry general equilibrium model of the United States built on a simple but powerful set of “new economic geography” inspired behavioral equations. The result is the regional dynamics economic model (www.redyn.com), a modeling tool used to conduct local impact analysis across the country.

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Eric C. Thompson
Director
Bureau of Business Research
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Formerly the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and a research associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Thompson is currently the director of the Bureau of Business Research and an associate professor of economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research fields include regional economics, economic forecasting, and state and local economic development, and his research has been published in Regional Science and Urban Economics, the Journal of Regional Science, Regional Studies, the Journal of Cultural Economics, and the Economic Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.