2021 Annual REMI Users’ Conference

SPEAKERS

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  Mayor Alan Johnson

  City of St. Pete Beach, Florida

  Alan Johnson currently serves as the Mayor of the City of St. Pete Beach, Florida. Prior to his election, Mayor Johnson dedicated 35 years to General Electric (GE) before retiring in 2005. There, he gained experience in contract negotiation and management, design engineering, and international sales. Mayor Johnson earned his Bachelor’s of Science Mechanical Engineering from Lowell Technological Institute, Lowell, Massachusetts before continuing his graduate studies at the Union College of Schenectady, New York. In addition, Mayor Johnson is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the states of New York and Florida. He is also a level one coach for USA Triathlon and an avid cyclist. We are honored to welcome Mayor Johnson as the keynote speaker at the 36th Annual REMI Users’ Conference!

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  Don Grimes

  University of Michigan

  Donald R. Grimes is a Regional Economic Specialist at the University of Michigan’s Research Seminar on Quantitative Economics. His primary research interests are in labor economics and economic forecasting. For more than 30 years, he has been engaged in economic forecasting for state and local governments and is frequently called upon for policy advice. For over 30 years he has generated annual short-term employment and income forecasts for Washtenaw and Oakland counties. For over 20 years he has worked with the Michigan departments of Transportation and Treasury and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on policy analysis and evaluating economic strategies. Mr. Grimes holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan, and his Bachelor of Arts from Kalamazoo College.

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  Jim Robey, Ph.D.

  Robey Analytics, LLC

  Jim Robey, Ph.D. is Principal of Robey Analytics, LLC, a professional consulting firm specializing in economic development, workforce development, and site selection services. Jim is an applied economist, economic developer, and site selection consultant with over 30 years of experience. He has worked with corporate, nonprofit, and economic and workforce development organizations in problem-solving, strategy, and policy decision-making from the local to the national levels. His expertise includes industry studies, applied occupational analysis, economic impact analysis, economic impact modeling, economic and workforce development research and analysis, and site selection assistance. Prior experience includes directing regional research initiatives, economic development, and site selection at both nonprofit and for-profit entities. Mr. Robey earned his Ph.D. in Urban Studies, with an emphasis in Economic Development, and his Master’s degree in Public Administration from Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs.

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  Luis Nieves-Riez

  East Central Florida Regional Planning Council

  Luis Nieves-Ruiz serves as Economic Development Manager for the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, a council of governments located in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Nieves-Ruiz’s areas of expertise include economic impact analysis, health and regional food systems planning, and industry cluster analysis. His professional and volunteer work has been recognized by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Florida, the Wallace Center at Winrock International, NADO, ULI, Toastmasters International, Next City, and Leadership Florida. Mr. Nieves-Ruiz holds a Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

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  Richard Weisskoff

  University of Miami

  Richard Weisskoff is Professor and Chair of the International Studies Department at the University of Miami (FL). Prior to his work at the University of Miami, he was a Professor at Yale, Iowa State, and Bar Ilan (Israel) Universities. During his career, Dr. Weisskoff has authored two books, Factories & Food Stamps: the Puerto Rico Model of Development and Economics of Everglades Restoration: Missing Pieces in the Future of South Florida. Dr. Weisskoff is a development economist turned regional and environmental expert, specializing in Latin America and the Caribbean. He uses REMI for work involving coral reefs, beaches, forests, recreational and industrial parks; sand, phosphate, and limestone mines, power lines, river dredging, and farmlands conversion. During the 2017 REMI Users’ Conference award ceremony, Richard was presented with Recognition for Contributions in Economic And Demographic Analysis. Dr. Weisskoff earned his BA and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

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  Scott Nystrom

  FTI Consulting

  Scott Nystrom is a Senior Director at FTI Consulting and is based in McLean, Virginia. Mr. Nystrom is in the Network Industry Strategies (“NIS”) practice within the Economic Consulting segment. He is an expert on macroeconomic, regional, and energy modeling and applying them to policy analysis and economic impact analysis. For the past eight years, Mr. Nystrom has conducted studies related to economic growth, climate, energy, fiscal policy, and demographics for federal agencies, numerous state and local governments, nonprofits, trade associations, utilities, major corporations, and law firms. His areas of research have included energy and the environment, infrastructure, economic development, healthcare, project development, capital investments, labor markets, international trade, and federal/state fiscal policy. Mr. Nystrom earned a Bachelor’s in History, a Bachelor’s in Economics, and a Master’s degree in Economic History from Iowa State University.

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  Yolanda Nabors

  Tennessee Technological University

  Yolunda Nabors is a Lecturer in Economics at the Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee. Ms. Nabors has performed economic impact analyses on the university, businesses, non-profit organizations, and sports using the REMI model. She has authored or co-authored several economic impact and benefit analysis studies. Ms. Nabors earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Mississippi State University and a master’s degree in Economics from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Economics at Middle Tennessee State University. She is a member of the American Economic Association, the National Economics Teaching Association, and Omicron Delta Epsilon.

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  Stanley McMillen, Ph.D.

  University of Connecticut

  Stanley McMillen, Ph.D. is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics and Consultant at the University of Connecticut. He previously retired in 2012 from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development where he was Managing Economist for six years. During his tenure at UCONN, he managed the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis. Dr. McMillen has taught Economics at UCONN, Trinity College, and Connecticut College and does consultant analysis on a variety of economic issues. Prior to joining the UCONN team, he worked in the aerospace, CAD/CAM, and medical device industries for 25 years before obtaining his doctorate in Economics at UCONN in 2005.

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  Frederick Treyz, Ph.D.

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Frederick R. Treyz, Ph.D. , is the Chief Economist and CEO of Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI), a leading provider of dynamic economic policy analysis models. He is an authority on regional macroeconomic modeling research and application. Under Dr. Treyz’s leadership, REMI has remained at the forefront of regional modeling, and informs public policy debates through the use of REMI models to evaluate economic development, transportation, energy, taxation, and other topics. The company’s clients include federal, state, and regional agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, leading national associations, universities, and consultants. Dr. Treyz oversees the research and development of the REMI model. He publishes in leading journals; this year he authored the paper “Immigration and United States Economic Growth,” in Business Economics, the journal of the National Association for Business Economics. 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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  Peter Evangelakis, Ph.D.

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Peter Evangelakis, Ph.D. is Vice President of Economics and Consulting at REMI. Since joining REMI in September 2017, he has managed REMI’s team of economists, assisted clients in planning and conducting economic analysis using the REMI model, contributed to the firm’s business development efforts, run REMI’s consulting practice and served as Principal Investigator on numerous projects, managed the development of several new pieces of modeling software, and prepared and presented at in-person and online REMI seminars and professional conferences, and in front of legislative committees. Dr. Evangelakis is based at REMI’s Washington, D.C. office. Prior to starting at REMI, Dr. Evangelakis taught undergraduate Intermediate Microeconomics as a Lecturer at the University of Chicago. He is an experienced Economic Researcher and Analyst; highlights of his work include measuring the effects of climate change on mortality and electricity usage and estimating air quality effects of the NOx Budget Program. Dr. Evangelakis has written papers analyzing the effects of Florida property tax reform and the non-pecuniary benefits of building a professional sports stadium. He also served as an Intern at The Washington Economics Group, Inc., and The Human Services Coalition of Miami-Dade County.

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  Jerry Hayes

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Jerry Hayes is a Vice President of Research and Development at REMI, where he oversees the Research and Development department. He is the Project Manager for all model developments, helping to design new software features and products and make programming changes to the model structure and interface. Since joining REMI in 2002, Mr. Hayes has contributed to most areas of software development, including improving and optimizing existing model code and processes, designing and implementing new features, working on new products, and managing software development. He has also been involved in analyzing and processing data, testing, and troubleshooting.

• JD

  Jeffrey Dykes

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Jeffrey Dykes is an Economic/Research & Development Analyst, with over 6 years of economic modeling experience for REMI at the Massachusetts headquarters. He has contributed to model development, policy research, and consulting with regional economic impact analysis in transportation and infrastructure, resilience, incentive analysis, and the development of linkages to external models. Mr. Dykes conducts research and evaluates data for consulting projects. He also evaluates new model versions for errors and discrepancies in economic forecasting simulations. Mr. Dykes holds a B.B.A. in Finance and a B.A. in Economics from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

• KK

  Katy Koon

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Katy Koon is a Business Development Analyst at Regional Economic Models, Inc. She supports several clients nationwide and works closely with Business Development to develop and host webinar presentations, provide technical model training, and aids in the development of the REMI-DEI module, a premier modeling solution for evaluating the socioeconomic indicators (SEI) of projects and policies across a variety of topic areas. Prior to joining REMI, Ms. Koon served as a Research and Consulting Graduate Assistant for the Government Finance Officers Associate, where she researched, wrote case studies, and participated in consulting projects related to local government financial management, risk reserve analysis, and building analytical models. Katy holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Clemson University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

• GB

  Guyesha Blackshear

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Guyesha Blackshear is an Business Development Analyst at Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI). She ensures REMI users are able to effectively incorporate the REMI model into their organizations and support their economic modeling needs. Prior to coming to REMI, Guyesha graduated from Spelman College where she studied economics. Then, she worked as a research assistant for a law firm and lobbying group. Next, she completed her Master’s in economics at Georgia State University. Then, she worked as an implementation consultant for a technology consulting firm. There, she performed data analysis and UX research.

• LL

  Li Liu

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Li Liu is a Research & Development Analyst at Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI). He builds and ships the models, improves development processes, and leads the IT team. He is skilled at econometrics, business data analytics, and Python programming. Mr. Liu holds an M.A. in Computational Economics from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Mathematics from Indiana University Bloomington.

• HG

  Haozheyi Guan

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Haozheyi Guan is an Economic Analyst at REMI. She has provided extensive research, data analysis, and model forecasting to several consulting projects with regional economic and fiscal impact analysis in tax policy and transportation. She also contributes to the development of REMI model’s methodology, conducts econometric analysis to estimate model equations, updates regional economic forecasting data, and provides advisory services and technical support to REMI model users. Haozheyi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Beijing Normal University and a Master’s degree in International Economics and Finance from Johns Hopkins University.

• WK

  Wei Kang, Ph.D.

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Wei Kang is a Regional Economist at REMI. Dr. Kang updates and manages the national account and demographic database, researches and estimates model equations using econometric methodologies, and develops international models. She joined REMI in 2011 as a research economist. Dr. Kang contributed extensively to the development of the new REMI HD model’s methodology and econometric modeling. Prior to joining REMI, she worked as a research assistant for the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University, where she tracked the regional economic conditions and conducted economic impact analysis. She assisted with a number of business and economic research projects. Dr. Kang has co-authored published papers on the impacts of oil prices. Dr. Kang holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Middle Tennessee State University, along with a B.A. in Finance from the Beijing Language and Culture University.

• XM

  Xioachu Ma

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  Xiaochu Ma is an Economic Analyst at REMI. She has contributed to several consulting projects, data analysis projects, and model development. She has experience in policy research in tax policy, infrastructure, and industry development. Ms. Ma holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Nankai University and a Master’s degree in Economics from Columbia University.

• ML

  May Lin

  Regional Economic Models, Inc.

  May Lin is an Economic Analyst at Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI). She supports several clients across the globe with their economic modeling needs, ensuring that they can incorporate the REMI model into their organizations as effectively as possible. Prior to coming to REMI, May was an investment analyst at the State Development and Investment Corporation. Later, she was a teaching assistant of data analysis, forecasting and risk analysis at Washington University in St. Louis. She has experience in economic modeling, data analysis, and programming. Ms. Lin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Purdue University and a Master’s degree in Statistics from Washington University in St. Louis.