Dr. Erwin Gianchandani is the U.S. National Science Foundation’s assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, leading the newly established TIP Directorate.

Gianchandani has worked at NSF since 2012. Prior to becoming the assistant director for TIP, he served as the senior advisor for Translation, Innovation and Partnerships for over a year, where he helped develop plans for the new TIP Directorate in collaboration with colleagues at NSF, other government agencies, industry and academia.

Gianchandani has published extensively and presented at international conferences on computational systems biology. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s and doctoral degrees in biomedical engineering, all from the University of Virginia.

Ally Bain is Acting Chief Operating Officer at the Economic Development Administration. In this capacity she ensures alignment of programs and operations across the agency. She previously served as the Acting Chief of Staff, and before that, as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary/Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining EDA, she served as a Deputy Director in the Secretary of Commerce’s office coordinating cross-department efforts to stand up and implement new large-scale programming resulting from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act.

Before joining Commerce, Ally held several White House roles to ensure consistency across strategies, plans, and budgets, on the National Security Council and at the Office of Management and Budget. She entered government service as a Presidential Management Fellow and was a Center for New American Security Brimley fellow. Prior to joining government, she worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Ally received a bachelor of arts in international development from George Washington University and a master’s in security studies from Georgetown University.

Ms. Shreeya Gurav is an Analyst at REMI with expertise in economic modeling and data analysis. Ms. Gurav has been heavily involved in REMI’s work in both the transportation and fiscal sectors, with experience of modeling tax policy changes and various transportation scenarios. Example projects include a published white paper on the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, along with consulting proficiency with taxation and transit planning. 

Ms. Gurav’s academic qualifications include a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her background has given her expertise that connects economic theory with mathematical methods that assist the economic modeling process. 

Peter Evangelakis, Ph.D. is Senior Vice President of Economics & Consulting at REMI. After joining REMI in September 2017, he has served as Principal Investigator on all consulting projects and published papers, managed REMI’s team of economists and analysts, provided comprehensive technical and advisory support to clients, contributed to economic modeling software development, made multiple presentations on behalf of the company, and contributed to business development from our Washington, D.C. office.

Dr. Evangelakis is an experienced Economic Researcher and Analyst. Highlights of his published work include a review of the non-pecuniary benefits of professional sports stadiums, a municipal-level revenue analysis of Florida property tax reform, an exposition of novel macroeconomic measures of the digital economy, and an economic and demographic analysis of the U.S. immigrant population.

Dr. Evangelakis holds Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics from Swarthmore College.

Swati Ghosh is Vice President, Insights and Innovations at NGIN, where she leads program delivery overseeing research and learning, technical assistance, and innovation in the field of inclusive economic development. Prior to NGIN, Swati served as Senior Director of Research at the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and has extensive experience working at the intersection of economic, community, and workforce development to strengthen the economic development ecosystem at the local and regional level. She specializes in analyzing and designing economic development strategies in entrepreneurship and workforce development, inclusive growth, economic recovery and diversification, and organizational capacity building, among others. Swati has a Master of Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Urban Planning from the School of Planning & Architecture, India. She is also a Board member and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Work and Economy.

Michael Hendrix is with Civic Roundtable— a civic tech company that builds collaboration and knowledge infrastructure for public-serving institutions. Civic Roundtable’s platform helps government agencies, nonprofits, and universities coordinate complex initiatives, share institutional knowledge, and work more effectively across organizations. Trusted by public servants in all 50 states, Civic Roundtable supports cross-sector networks that include partners such as Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins University, and Harvard University.

Prior to joining Civic Roundtable, Michael spent nearly a decade building systems at mission-driven startups and previously served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Outside of work, Michael has spent over a decade performing, teaching, and directing improv, where he developed a deep appreciation for navigating complexity and collaborating more effectively. Michael holds an M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Stephanie Landrum is President & CEO of AEDP, where she drives the City’s vision for long-term, inclusive growth. Since joining AEDP in 2005 and stepping into the CEO role in 2015, Stephanie has helped shape Alexandria’s modern economy—leading high-profile projects, strengthening regional partnerships, and ensuring local businesses have the resources they need to succeed. 

She oversees strategic and financial operations for both AEDP Small Business and the City’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA), while also serving as a key advisor to Alexandria’s City Council and leadership. Her work has been instrumental in securing major investments—including Amazon’s HQ2 and the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus—positioning Alexandria as a national model for community-based economic development. She also played a pivotal role in founding the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance (NOVA EDA), a regional partnership representing nine jurisdictions working together to attract and retain business.  

She holds a B.S. in City and Regional Planning and an MBA, both from the University of Virginia. To support her philosophy that work should be fulfilling AND fun, Stephanie never passes on an opportunity to celebrate milestones with a karaoke outing!

Baker joined Virginia Tech in the greater Washington, D.C., metro area in 2018 as assistant director of government and community affairs, based in Alexandria. His focus has been on supporting campus leadership through important initiatives with the City of Alexandria and key local stakeholders.

He assumed the new role with the Innovation Campus on July 25.

During his time with the Office of Government Relations, Baker served as a primary point of contact for City of Alexandria officials and the local community, including throughout the zoning and entitlement process for the Innovation Campus. He also led the effort to have the Virginia Tech name added to the new Potomac Yard Metro Station. In addition, Baker created the Tech on Tap lecture series to promote research at Virginia Tech and foster a culture of lifelong learning in the community. More than 1,000 community members have participated in these programs.

Baker joined Virginia Tech from George Washington University, where he had served as director of Virginia government relations since 2014. Prior to that, Baker worked in federal and state government affairs for several organizations in Northern Virginia, including the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

Baker graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and earned his master’s degree of public policy from George Washington University.

With 20 years of strategic communications experience, Denise understands what it takes to connect with your audiences and stakeholders. She spends her days working with clients to think beyond a New York Times interview or single success metric because she knows that successful organizations play the long-game. They look at how to connect with audiences across social media, traditional news, events, content and much more. Her approach is to help organizations focus on their goals through integrated communications and collect wins along the way. Her specific skills include strategic planning, media relations, messaging, stakeholder engagement, communications strategy, thought leadership, editing, facilitation and interpreter between clients and creatives and communications experts and business leaders.

In her 20 years, Denise has worked with organizations across a variety of issue areas. Veterans, healthcare, mental health, workforce development, economic development, education, software development and B2B technology are just a few.

Denise graduated with a bachelor’s in Journalism from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She completed General Assembly’s Digital Marketing Certification in February 2018 and is a certified facilitator. She has run exactly one marathon and countless half marathons and other races. Raised in the City of Brotherly Love, she is a diehard Philadelphia sports fan and is still basking in the Eagles 2018 Super Bowl victory.

Jessica Gnad leads the development and implementation of a comprehensive universitywide strategy for economic development. In this role, she connects and supports stakeholders across campuses, communities, government and educational sectors to advance strategic partnerships that drive meaningful growth and innovation.

Working in a universitywide capacity with K-State Extension as a key partner, Gnad excels at connecting people, ideas and institutions to K-State’s extensive assets and resources. Her collaborative approach focuses on leveraging the university’s strengths to drive community and economic development initiatives that benefit the institution and the broader region.

Gnad’s expertise lies in identifying opportunities for strategic partnerships and translating academic resources into practical applications that support economic growth. Her work bridges the gap between university capabilities and community needs, ensuring that K-State’s knowledge and resources contribute meaningfully to regional development efforts.

Bjorn Markeson of IMPLAN will lead a session on how universities can better measure and communicate their economic impact. As institutions face growing expectations to demonstrate their value to policymakers, partners, and communities, the ability to turn complex data into a clear economic story is critical.

Participants will learn practical approaches to economic impact modeling, including how to measure direct, indirect, and induced effects; assess research and capital investments; and translate findings into messages that support funding conversations, strategic planning, and stronger regional partnerships.

Dr. Kenneth (Ken) E. Poole is the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness. Dr. Poole has managed economic development research, analysis, and technical assistance efforts for 35 years. Dr. Poole co-founded CREC in January 2000 as an independent non-profit focused on assisting policy-makers use data to develop a stronger understanding of how state and regional economies can compete effectively in the evolving, knowledge-based economy.

As Executive Director of the national nonprofit membership organizations, the University Economic Development Association (UEDA), Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), the Labor Market Information Institute, and the Projections Managing Partnership, Dr. Poole oversees all program development activities, including information dissemination about news related to the Federal statistical agencies, the development of research and professional training activities, as well as organizing national conferences for the different professional networks. 

Ken obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Public Policy with a concentration in Regional Development Policy from George Mason University, a Master in Public Administration degree from American University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from UNC at Chapel Hill.  In 2016, he received the Innovation in Local Employment Dynamics Award from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Craig Buerstatte is an entrepreneurial public servant who is passionate about building teams, businesses, and communities for the future. He first honed his innovation skills in remote areas of Iraq as an Army Officer, developing new supply chain solutions and infrastructure when resources were strained. Craig leveraged this experience to jump into entrepreneurship, founding a technology firm and investing in startups in Austin, Texas, before returning to public service to help the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) grow its Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIE). As Director for OIE, he led new policy initiatives and grant programs that promoted technology innovation and talent development as tools for economic development—growing the portfolio nearly 400% and scaling its impacts to over $1.6 billion in private investment capital and 14,000 jobs.

Craig most recently served as EDA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional Affairs, responsible for the implementation, growth, and evaluation of EDA’s economic development programs and policies. This work brought together the tools and teams across EDA’s six field offices to create more robust and resilient regional economies across America.

Megan McKeown serves as Director of Governmental Affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). She is responsible for issues related to federal science and research policy.

Megan previously provided Congressional affairs support for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Research line office. There she covered issues ranging from ocean exploration to air quality modelling to next generation weather radars. Megan was also previously a National Sea Grant fellow with the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee and worked in the Office of External Affairs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Megan earned her degrees from two APLU institutions, a Master’s of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington and a Bachelor’s of Science in Meteorology at Texas A&M University. Megan enjoys spending time outdoors and trying new recipes.

From 2022 through 2025, Jack Ruddy served as Staff Director of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure – the largest House Committee with 65 Members – leading the T&I Staff through a consequential period for legislative activity on U.S. infrastructure policy. Prior to being Staff Director, Jack served as Deputy Staff Director of the Committee for three and a half years, where his primary responsibility was to serve as policy director – overseeing the development of legislative products and strategy – across the Committee. In total, Jack has served for over 14 years for Chairman Sam Graves in various policy roles including five as Legislative Director in his Congressional Office.

Jack played a leading role in developing and executing the campaign that led to the Republican Steering Committee electing Graves to his Committee leadership position in 2019. Jack was also the most senior member of the team that successfully orchestrated Graves securing a historic ‘waiver’ to Republican term limits that allowed the Chairman to continue serving for a fourth consecutive term atop the Transportation Committee – an achievement that has only happened once over the last 25 years.

Jack ushered the Committee’s agenda successfully through the legislative process during the 118th Congress. The crowning achievement during this time was the enactment of a long-term FAA reauthorization bill, a $100 billion law which establishes the nation’s aviation policy and funding for five years. Additionally, he also led efforts that resulted in priority legislation being signed into law including a comprehensive water infrastructure bill, historic public buildings reforms, and reauthorization of the nation’s economic development programs which had not been done since 2008. The House also passed two consecutive Coast Guard bills by wide margins.

Jack is a proud native Virginian, having attended Robinson High School and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Hampden-Sydney College in Farmville, VA. He is also a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, a program focused on promoting bipartisanship and civility in public service.

Michael has 18 years of professional experience in federal and local policymaking, program design and program execution at local, regional, state federal levels.

Prior to joining CREC Michael, founded Engage, Educate, Employ, a consultancy focused on the needs of workers in manufacturing economies.  E3’s first client was the Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) Program of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, where Michael advised on an effort to create a national strategy for advanced manufacturing workforce development and synchronize the Educational and Workforce Development efforts of nine Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institutes.

Prior to founding E3, Michael was the Program Director for Industry Resilience at the Office of Economic Adjustment, a Department of Defense agency.  There he led multidisciplinary teams assisting communities in economic transition to design programs and policies that support bottom-up development of workforce ecosystems and build healthy, vibrant communities.  With over 60 direct engagements with defense manufacturing communities, Michael is a nationally recognized expert in the needs of workers in technology-driven economies.

Before his service with the Department of Defense, Gilroy was the Program Director for Base Realignment and Closure at the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL).  There he designed a response program of national scope to assist dislocated workers affected by the decisions of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.  While at USDOL, he also designed the Department’s first program to assist military spouses with credential portability, and created the Strategic Action Team program, the USDOL’s first-responder program for communities in economic distress.  From 2007-2009 Michael served as the Department’s point person for recovery from the effects of Hurricane Katrina in the State of Louisiana. Michael was also an original plank holder in Labor’s WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) initiative where he led the federal program team for two regions and served as deputy on three other regional program teams.

A U.S. Army combat veteran, Michael holds master’s degrees in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma, and in Strategy from the United States Naval War College.  He is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute resident program in Charlotteville, Virginia.