Dania V. Francis is Assistant Professor of Economics at UMass Boston. Her current research involves using experimental and quasi-experimental methods to identify structural causes of racial and socioeconomic academic achievement gaps. More broadly, Professor Francis’ research interests include examining racial and socioeconomic disparities in education, wealth accumulation, and labor markets. Dr. Francis received her doctorate from Duke University and also holds a master’s degree from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Smith College. She is a board member of the National Economics Association and a National Academies of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Francis has been featured on CNBC International and TRT World and her work has been written about in several major publication outlets.

Arturo Franco is a development economist and strategy consultant. His career combines high-level positions in Fortune 500 corporations and global organizations, with public policy and international development experience.

Before joining Mastercard, Arturo was a senior advisor for McKinsey & Company’s global public and social policy practice and executive director of the Planning Council of the State of Nuevo Leon, where he also served as Undersecretary. Over the past years, Arturo has been Global Leadership Fellow for Latin America at the World Economic Forum, economics research fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Development, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Arturo holds economics degrees from Monterrey Tec in Mexico and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was also vice chair of the Alumni Board. His essays and books have been published by the Brookings Institution, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the Atlantic Council, and the Policy Network.

Stephanie von Friedeburg is IFC’s first Senior Vice President, Operations. She most recently stewarded the institution in the midst of the pandemic and led the implementation of IFC’s strategy to create projects, attract private investment, and support a resilient, inclusive recovery in emerging markets. She currently leads IFC’s investment operations and advisory services and manages IFC’s $60 billion debt and equity portfolio in more than 100 countries. Her priorities include increasing opportunities for women, scaling up investments to fight climate change, and promoting digital development. Her career spans three decades at the World Bank Group. She started at IFC, where she also served as the first Chief Operating Officer, and has spent more than two decades in investment operations. In addition to an MBA from the Wharton School, she holds a Master of Arts from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught microeconomic theory, and occasionally urban and public economics, since 1992. He has served as Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. He has published dozens of papers on cities economic growth, law, and economics. In particular, his work has focused on the determinants of city growth and the role of cities as centers of idea transmission. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1992. His books include Cities, Agglomeration, and Spatial Equilibrium (Oxford University Press, 2008), Rethinking Federal Housing Policy (American Enterprise Institute Press, 2008), Triumph of the City (Penguin Press, 2011), and Survival of the City: Mass Flourishing in an Age of Social Isolation (Penguin Press, forthcoming in Fall 2021).

Dr. Amy Glasmeier is a professor of Economic Geography and Regional Planning. She runs LRISA, the Lab on Regional Innovation and Spatial Analysis, in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT. Glasmeier is a founding editor of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. Her research focuses economic opportunities for communities and individuals. She investigates the role of geographic access and the effect of locational accident, on human development. She is writing a book “Good Bye American Dream” that traces the ideology of opportunity that undergirds America’s relationship to the poor. Through analysis of census data, popular media, and personal narratives Professor Glasmeier is exploring the contradictions in this most sacred of constructs by demonstrating the ephemeral nature of economic opportunity encumbered by locational accident, institutional inertia and the unintended consequences of public policy. The work builds off of her long running Living Wage Calculator, which analyzes the minimum level of income required for individuals and families to pay for basic living expenses. Professor Glasmeier holds a professional Masters and PhD in Regional from UC Berkeley. A second field of expertise, Glasmeier investigates and teaches about the role of energy in human development. She is a co-PI on a four year NSF-CRISP project studying resilience and the case of catastrophic failures.

Thomas Goff is a partner at Mass Economics and a co-founder of data-Fab. Thom works with data-Fab staff to develop new approaches and tools for its extensive and robust data platform, which drives both data-Fab’s and Mass Economics’ research and consulting work. Thom’s work at Mass Economics blends demographic, economic, business, statistical, and spatial analysis to guide neighborhoods, cities and regions in their economic and land development strategies. In addition to developing industry-cluster strategies for comprehensive economic development plans in cities across the U.S., Thom’s recent areas of focus include tracking the (socio)economic impacts of COVID-19, working with partners on economic equity indicators and a data-dashboard, evaluating innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems, identifying and assessing innovation districts, and the creation of urban industrial land and real estate development models and strategies at the scale of individual sites up to entire cities. Prior to Mass Economics, Thom was a Senior Analyst at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) in Boston, where he was responsible for the internal management and execution of projects and the creation and management of a SQL database containing detailed industry data for thousands of urban areas nationwide.

Tracy Hadden Loh is a Fellow with the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. Dr. Loh is a graduate of DC public schools and holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to her research interest in placemaking, Dr. Loh served two years representing Ward 1 on the Mount Rainier City Council in Prince George’s County, Md. She is currently a member of the board of directors of Greater Greater Washington. Dr. Loh’s research focuses on commercial real estate. She has recently written about the need for reform of the real estate sector, including who benefits from new development, and the governance challenges that enable the extreme and growing spatialization of inequality in U.S. metropolitan regions.

Julia Haggerty is Associate Professor of Geography in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University, where she is also currently Interim Director of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems. Haggerty leads the Resources & Communities Research Group in studying the ways rural communities respond to shifting economic and policy trajectories, especially as they involve natural resources.

William A. Herbert is a Distinguished Lecturer at Hunter College, City University of New York and the Executive Director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions. He is also a Faculty Associate at the Roosevelt House Institute for Public Policy at Hunter College, and is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Prior to joining Hunter College’s faculty, Mr. Herbert was Deputy Chair and Counsel to the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). Before his tenure at PERB, Mr. Herbert was Senior Counsel at CSEA Local 1000, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, a New York labor union.

His published works include seven law review articles concerning new technologies and workplace law, and he is co-author with Jerome Dobson of a recent chapter titled “Geoprivacy, Convenience, and the Pursuit of Anonymity in Digital Cities” in Wenzhong Shu, Michael Goodchild, Michael Batty, Mei-Po Kwan and Anshu Zhang (eds.), Urban Informatics (Springer 2021).

Mr. Herbert received his B.A. from the University at Buffalo and his J.D. from the Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

He resides in Delmar, New York, and New York City.

Greg Hill has enjoyed a twenty-six-year career in education.

He teaches High School AP Human Geography,World Regional Geography, and African-American Studies in Mesquite, Texas. Mr. Hill began his Social Studies teaching career as a World History teacher in Dallas Public Schools.

He is also currently a Graduate student of Geography at Marshall University focusing on Urban Geography.

He is the 2016 recipient of the Distinguished Educator Award: K-12 from the National Council for Geographic Education. He is also the 2020 recipient of the International Educator of the Year Award from the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Ft. Worth.

At Horn High, Greg sponsors the Global Young Leaders and coaches the Current Events Team.