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Mason Pierce is the head of the economics department at Owens Corning, a global manufacturer of building and industrial materials based in Ohio. He leads a team of economists dedicated to offering insights and analyses on the economic factors affecting the company’s diverse businesses, including residential and non-residential construction, exchange and interest rates, and industrial output. Additionally, Mason oversees the demand forecasting processes that underpin the company’s strategic and operational planning. Given his extensive understanding of the construction and industrial markets, Mason is a trusted subject matter expert and valued advisor to the leadership at Owens Corning.
David Brasington is a Professor and the James C. and Caroline Kautz Chair in Political Economy at the University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business. Brasington received his PhD in Economics from The Ohio State University, and specializes in public finance, urban and regional economics, and real estate finance.
Ben Demko manages the economic research and analytics team focused on macroeconomic, industry, and market risks that impact KeyBank’s varied loan portfolios. He is responsible for proprietary, forward-looking perspectives on the economy and real estate markets which are used across the bank for stress testing, loss estimation, asset management, resource allocation, and profit planning. Ben joined KeyBank in 2005 and has nearly 20 years of business analytics, economic research, and risk management experience.
Marques serves as Director  of Strategic Institutional Relationship for Diamond Hill and joined the firm in 2015. Prior to joining Diamond Hill, Marques was Vice President & Investment Officer for Goldman Sachs and Company from 2010 to 2015. He also held various positions in the Investment Management Division at Goldman Sachs from 2005 to 2010. Marques has a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and a Certificate in Political Economy from Princeton University and holds the Series 7 and 63 FINRA securities licenses.
Dr. Edward "Ned" Hill is professor of economic development at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and Knowlton College of Architecture’s City and Regional Planning section at The Ohio State University. Recruited in 2015 for the university's Discovery Themes, Hill spearheads public policy research in manufacturing and workforce development and is deeply involved in understanding regional economic resilience. He formerly served as the dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University and was its inaugural vice president for economic development. Major state and national media outlets, including the New York Times and NPR have featured Hill's extensive commentary on economic development and manufacturing. Recognized by Ohio state leaders and organizations for his service, Hill holds degrees from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, emphasizing urban planning and economics.
Dr. Kevin Jacques is the Boynton D. Murch Chair in Finance at the Baldwin Wallace Carmel Boyer School of Business. Prior to joining BW, Dr. Jacques spent 14 years with the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C. Most recently, he was a senior financial economist advising senior Treasury officials and members of the George W. Bush Administration on policy issues regarding the U.S. banking and financial system.Additionally, he lectured in finance at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. In the mid-1990s, he served on the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, examining possible macroeconomic causes of systemic risk in U.S. financial markets. Recognized nationally, Dr. Jacques' insights have received hundreds of media citations including PBS television, NPR, Bloomberg, Politico, S&P Global Market Intelligence, Fortune, and U.S. News & World Report, among others. In 2016, Crain’s Cleveland Business recognized him as a leading national expert in banking, financial and government policy.
Elizabeth Schuster is a seasoned economic professional with over 20 years of experience in sustainability and community development, both in the U.S. and globally. She is currently the Environmental Economist and CEO of Sustainable Economies Consulting, a strategic planning and economics research firm based in Wooster, OH. Educated at Oberlin College and the University of Arizona, her expertise spans sectors including agriculture, academia, and government. A recognized authority, Elizabeth's research delves into regenerative agriculture economics, food production, and ecosystem service valuation. Her contributions have earned national accolades, including awards from the American Farm Bureau Federation and the NJ Association of Floodplain Management. With a passion for bridging gaps and driving positive change, Elizabeth is an invaluable asset to any collaborative project that merges data and strategy.
Joe Simkins is a Senior Economist at TEConomy Partners who works in the fields of technology and innovation strategy, applied microeconomics, emergent/complex systems modeling, and behavioral economics with experience in a wide variety of project applications ranging from health care to disaster response. Joe uses data mining, econometrics, machine learning, and simulation tools to gain insights and build predictive models of complex systems and populations in order to understand the dynamic behaviors that drive the world around us.
Amanda leads the Research, Knowledge, and Evaluation team in providing a better understanding of the economic dynamics of rural America and evaluating our programs guiding communities towards tech-driven prosperity using rigorous analysis and real-world insight. Formerly an associate professor of economics at The University of Akron, Amanda advised various groups including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. Her work has been featured in various media outlets including MarketWatch, Forbes, Reuters, Business Insider, The Hill, TIME, NBC News, and Fox News. Before starting her Ph.D., she was a senior business analyst at BearingPoint and a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. Amanda holds a bachelor’s in mathematics from the United States Air Force Academy, a master’s in operations research from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in agricultural, environmental, and development economics from The Ohio State University, where she worked as the graduate research assistant for the C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy. She lives in Hudson, Ohio, with her husband and kids.
Dr. Yilmaz is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics of Cleveland State University. His research develops computational general equilibrium models to analyze individual decision-making, and uses these models to study issues in educational policy, specializing in the economics and finance of schools as well as housing policy. Dr. Yilmaz has published in journals like the Journal of Housing Economics, the Journal of Human Capital, the Journal of Macroeconomics, the Journal of Public Economic Theory, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Monetary Economics.
