2019 REMI Amherst Economic Analysis Conference

SPEAKERS

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  Peter Gunther

  Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis

  Peter Gunther is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, (CCEA) School of Business, UConn who resides in Ottawa, Canada where he is also President of Smith Gunther Associates Ltd., a modestly sized economic consultancy. Over the last 15 years with Fred Carstensen, Director at CCEA, they have undertaken at least 75 REMI applications, many of which have required estimates of complex amenities. From 2002-2006, he served the International Government Authority on Development as the Resource Person for the Wealth Sharing Table of the Sudanese Peace Negotiations. More recently international studies have focused on the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Basin for the Great Lakes Commission. Within Canada, his work has concentrated on evaluation of various Federal Government projects, studies of multi-occupational medical teams for more efficiently delivering healthcare, improvements in the blood deliver system, development of novel drugs, and innovative medical diagnostic tools. Private sector Canadian studies have covered enhanced participation in recreational activities, such as recreational marine, fishing, ATVing, snowmobiling, and motorcycling.

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  Rod Motamedi

  UMass Donahue Institute

  Rod Motamedi is a Research Manager at the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute with over eight years of experience conducting economic and policy impact analyses, economic development and regional competitiveness assessments, and industry footprint studies. Prior to joining the Donahue Institute, Mr. Motamedi was a Senior Economic Associate at Regional Economic Models, Inc. He is an expert in the application of economic models to high-visibility issues around the U.S. and internationally. His current projects include an assessment of the impacts of container deposits laws, the economic and social impacts of the introduction of casinos in Massachusetts, and workforce supply and demand alignment in Metro Boston. Mr. Motamedi received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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  Margaret Kurth

  U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center

  Margaret Kurth is a Contract Research Engineer with the Risk and Decision Science Team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). She conducts R&D in support of federal agencies, state and municipal authorities, and with U.S. industries through innovative work agreements. She applies methods of operations research, systems engineering, decision science, and risk assessment to traditional and emerging management problems. An active area of her research is resilience; to advance the practical application of the concept, Margaret explores its implications for the current state of practice in various contexts, most recently the building industry and disaster recovery. More broadly, she is advancing methods and metrics for resilience quantification for a variety of systems and scales. This includes an ongoing collaboration with REMI for pairing network science approaches to transportation resilience quantification with economic models. Margaret has a Master’s of Science in Engineering from Tufts University and a Bachelor’s of Science from Cornell University.

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  Al Morrissey, Ph.D.

  National Grid

  Al Morrissey is Corporate Economist at National Grid, an electricity and gas utility company with 7 million customers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. He has 34 years of experience in the energy industry, having started his career at American Electric Power Company in Columbus, Ohio in 1983, where he helped develop electric energy and demand forecasts for a seven-state region. Since 1988, he has worked at legacy National Grid companies in the area of electric and gas load forecasting, economic and financial analysis, and, more recently, economic impact analysis of National Grid investment proposals using REMI. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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  Stanley McMillen, Ph.D.

  University of Connecticut (UCONN)

  Stan McMillen retired in 2012 from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, where he was Managing Economist for six years. Prior to that, he worked in the aerospace, CAD/CAM and medical device industries for 25 years before obtaining his doctorate in Economics at UCONN in 2005. During his tenure at UCONN, he managed the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis. Stan has taught Economics at UCONN, Trinity College and Connecticut College and does consulting on a variety of economic issues.

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  Gökçe Akın-Olçum, Ph.D.

  Environmental Defense Fund

  Gokce Akin-Olcum , Ph.D. specializes in international climate policy and market-based environmental regulations. A key element of her work is the integration of economic simulation models in environmental policy design. Dr. Akin-Olcum is currently focusing on the evolution of carbon markets as outlined in the Article 6 of the Paris agreement. She also oversees the development of the U.S. state-level economic modeling project, which establishes the analytical foundation necessary for analyzing alternative subnational and national-level climate and energy policies. Before joining the Environmental Defense Fund, Dr. Akin-Olcum was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University. She holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Economics and a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering. She has also taught graduate- and undergraduate-level courses at Boston University and Boston College. She is an active member of American Economic Association, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and New England Women in Energy and the Environment.

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  Amrita Bhattacharyya, Ph.D.

  Leidos

  Dr. Amrita Bhattacharyya has more than thirteen years of experience as a Power Market Consultant, including work to support power asset development and financings. She has worked with independent developers, private equity companies, banks, and regulatory agencies for business transactions and regulatory proceedings. Her responsibilities at Leidos include leading the preparation of forecasts for NYISO, MISO, SERC, SPP, and other market regions as the Leidos Regional Expert. Her project experience also includes modeling support for power generation assets in these regions (and other regions) as the Primary Market Analyst. This work often includes market modeling, dispatch analysis, and revenue projections for assets. Dr. Bhattacharyya has a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Economics from Boston College, and she has specific expertise on U.S. energy market design and regulatory issues.

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  Phillip Granberry, Ph.D.

  Boston Planning and Development Agency

  Phillip Granberry is a social demographer and his research focuses on unauthorized immigration in the United States. He worked with various community-based organizations assisting recently arrived U.S. immigrants before earning a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston. He currently is a Senior Researcher and Demographer at the Boston Planning and Development Agency.

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  Kevin Kang

  Boston Planning and Development Agency

  Kevin Kang is a Research Associate at Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA). He provides research and consultation for projects on Boston’s economy and demographics. His research focuses on economic growth, urban economics, and public policy. Kevin holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from Northeastern University.

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  Frederick Treyz, Ph.D.

  REMI

  Frederick R. Treyz , Ph.D. is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Economist at Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI), a leading provider of dynamic economic modeling software and consulting. He is an authority on the macroeconomic and demographic effects of policy changes on states and regions. Under Dr. Treyz’s leadership, REMI has shaped public policy debates by helping clients evaluate economic development, energy, immigration reform, healthcare policy, and other topics. The company’s clients include federal, state, and regional agencies, leading national associations, metropolitan planning organizations, universities, and consultants who seek to analyze the implications of public policy. Dr. Treyz has overseen the research and development of REMI’s suite of regional policy models, and has academic publications in leading journals. He holds an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Regional Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

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  Keith Waters, Ph.D.

  REMI

  Keith Waters , Ph.D., is an Economist at REMI. Dr. Waters has experience researching regional economic development, analyzing the geographic allocation of economic activity, and incorporating geography into an agent-based model to study firm formation’s linkages with inter-regional migration and the spatial distribution of labor within a country. Prior to joining REMI, Dr. Waters worked with organizations such as the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments, the U.S. Economics and Statistics Administration, and the U.S. Economic Development Administration compiling research and data for reports on geography, economic and community development, and economic impact studies. Since completing his education, Dr. Waters has been a teaching assistant and lecturer, speaking on subjects related to public policy, GIS and spatial analysis, regional economic development, and statistics. He has taught courses on several software packages and programming languages, including STATA, SAS, Python R, ArcGIS, GeoDa, and Pajek. Dr. Waters earned his Ph.D. in Public Policy at George Mason University after receiving his master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Geography and bachelor’s degrees in Economics, Geography, and Mathematics from Western Michigan University.

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  Chris Judson

  REMI

  Chris Judson is a Managing Economic Associate at REMI. Mr. Judson, who joined REMI in 2011, specializes in transportation, energy, and the environment. Since arriving at REMI, Mr. Judson has consulted for a number of clients on topics including medical research, labor force economics, and natural disasters. He provides client support in selecting inputs, conducting simulations, and analyzing results, and he creates and hosts public online seminars and training presentations on a variety of modeling topics. Mr. Judson co-authored an academic journal article titled, “Decision framework for evaluating the macroeconomic risks and policy impacts of cyber attacks”. He holds a B.A. in economics from Western New England University, with a concentration in business.

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  Jacob Linger

  REMI

  Jacob Linger is an Economic Associate at REMI, helping to support clients and identify uses for dynamic economic modeling. Mr. Linger has assisted with model presentations, client demonstrations, and software quality assurance. Prior to starting at REMI, Mr. Linger was a Research Assistant for the Economics department at The Ohio State University, working alongside an international team of economists tasked with updating the Census of Business Records. He also served as a Research Assistant for the University’s College of Business, an Undergraduate Economics Society member, and writer for the Undergraduate Economics Journal. Mr. Linger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from The Ohio State University, specializing in Economics with a minor in Mathematics.

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  Shane Vyskocil

  REMI

  Shane Vyskocil is an Economic Associate at REMI, working to promote the modeling software’s capabilities and provide information to clients. He has assisted in modeling public policy impacts, as well as testing the functions of the REMI suite of models. Before joining REMI, Mr. Vyskocil interned with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association’s (NJBIA) Government Affairs team, conducting research on economic issues affecting New Jersey and monitoring various legislative bills at committee hearings. Ahead of his work with the NJBIA, Mr. Vyskocil was a Research Assistant at Bryant University and a Congressional Intern for the state of New Jersey. Mr. Vyskocil graduated from Bryant University at the top of his class with a double major in Economics Public Policy and Politics & Law, and a minor in Finance. Mr. Vyskocil is currently in the process of publishing “Salary Dispersion and Team Performance in Major League Baseball: A Quantile Regression Analysis,” the paper he wrote to fulfill the capstone for his Economics major.