Audrey Anderson is the Director of Marketing & Communications for Golden Shovel Agency. Since joining the team in January 2020, she has moved from the Marketing & Communication Assistant to the Director of Marketing. Prior to Golden Shovel, Audrey worked in marketing for industries ranging from universities to nonprofits. She has Bachelor's Degrees in Communication Studies and Public Relations from Minnesota State University Moorhead. In addition, Audrey has certifications in The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing (Google), Email Marketing (HubSpot), HubSpot Marketing Software, Google Ads Search, and Inbound Marketing (HubSpot).
Shannan Booth
Workforce Development & Talent
Shannan Booth is Career & Technical Education Leader with Lee’s Summit R-7 School District in Lee’s Summit, MO. In that role, Shannan develops and facilitates projects and initiatives that foster partnerships with colleges, businesses, and the community. She ensures close coordination and communication with managers and other professionals to provide relevant and rigorous experiences for students and staff in career and technical areas.
Tina Chase
Workforce Development & Talent
Tina Chase is the Executive Director for Platte County Economic Development in Kansas City, MO. Tina has experience in every facet of economic development including workforce development. She has led efforts to mediate with local businesses and educational ecosystems to provide 2000+ students with experiential career-related learning opportunities through micro and long-term internships, projects, and company tours.Tina has more than twenty years of experience in business administration and marketing across public, private and non-profit sectors.
Jessica Craig
Financing
Jessica Craig is the Executive Director for Economic Development Sedalia-Pettis County in Missouri. As the Executive Director, Jessica leads business retention, business expansion, new business formation and business attraction activities for Sedalia and Pettis County in the heart of Missouri. For more than 17 years she has been dedicated to economic and workforce development at the local, regional and statewide levels. Eight of those years, she led statewide and regional efforts in business attraction and expansion for the Missouri Department of Economic Development.
Mark Dawson, CEcD
Financing
Mark Dawson is the Economic Development Director for the Greater Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce in Missouri. In this role, Mark provides the attraction, retention, expansion functions as well as advisor to city staff and Henry County governments on various development related needs. He has over 34 years’ experience in economic development and has served rural communities, fast growth suburban communities and most recently retired from EVERGY after a 19 year career as a regional utility economic development manager. As an economic development professional, he has assisted over 300 firms with projects, and assisted in the development of several industrial parks, a river port, shopping centers, adaptive reuse of former manufacturing space and underground industrial park..
Courtney Dunbar, CEcD, EDFP, AICP
Real Estate
Courtney Dunbar is the Site Selection and Economic Development Manager for Burns & McDonnell based in Kansas City. Courtney brings 22 years of combined career experiences in site selection, economic development, community planning, and project funding. In her current role she is actively engaged in industrial site planning, site selection, site certification, economic analysis, and community planning for the industrial, manufacturing, data center, and municipal market sectors. She is a frequent contributor to Site Selection and Area Development magazines, producing articles centered on site selection methods and site preparedness for economic development opportunities.
Dennis Fraise, CEcD
Workforce Development & Talent
Dennis Fraise is the Executive Director for the Lee County Economic Development Group in Lee County Iowa and a co-founder of the Develop This! Economic & Community Development podcast. Dennis is a progressive, yet seasoned economic development professional with an eclectic background as a small business owner, public speaker, and a perpetually optimistic big idea guy. A self-proclaimed meeting snob, Dennis is always willing to challenge the business as usual, status quo approach to getting things done. He’s passionate about bringing success to organizations and ensuring that communities look to the future with a clear focus on what is required to achieve success. Dennis’s non-traditional approach to economic and workforce development has led to speaking opportunities at the IEDC International Conferences in Toronto and Atlanta.
Nick Glew
Business Retention and Expansion
Nick Glew is President of the Marion Economic Development Corporation in Marion, IA. He joined MEDCO in 2014 and leads the organization’s strategic and business development priorities. Prior to that, Nick served as marketing director for Anderson Bogert Engineers, Private Banking officer at Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, and spent five years as a news anchor for KCRG-TV9. He is a board member for Professional Development of Iowa and serves as the Legislative Committee co-chair. Nick is also past president of the Marion-East Cedar Rapids Rotary club, a Corridor Business Journal Forty Under Forty Honoree, graduate of Leadership for Five Seasons and is the Recurrent chair of the Iowa Great Places Citizens Advisory Board.
Rebecca Gubbels
Entrepreneurship
Rebecca Gubbels is a Business and Program Development Consultant at the UMKC Innovation Center. Rebecca brings a banking and business entrepreneur background to her role of SBDC business and program development specialist and business coach. She teaches entrepreneurial courses, consults with business owners and manages special projects. Her skills include financial analysis, business operations, process improvement, business coaching and classroom facilitation. She was awarded the 2017 Missouri SBDC State Star for outstanding business counseling.
Barb Hake, CEcD
Site Selection and Responding to an RFP
Barb Hake is a Business Recruitment Project Manager for the Kansas Department of Commerce. Over 25 years she has successfully managed and coordinated business recruitment and expansion projects resulting in over40,000 jobs and over $4.0 billion in both capital investment and payroll. She has worked on projects with executives in key companies such as Geico, Teva, Black and Veatch, Eurofins Viracor, BE Aerospace, US Engineering, AIG, Dairy Farmer's of America, Bayer, JP Morgan, Spirit AeroSystems, AMC Theatres, Sara Lee, General Motors, Farmers Insurance, Quintiles, Kiewit, Pharmaceutical Research Associates and Capital One. She previously managed the business recruitment operations and professional staff at the Kansas Department of Commerce which received national awards and recognition for results in job creation, payroll and capital investment resulting in a diverse and extensive network of site consultant contacts across the U.S.
Nicolas Hockenberry
Workforce Development & Talent
Nic Hockenberry is a Director of Workforce Solutions for the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation in Dubuque, IA. As one of two Directors of Workforce Solutions, Nic facilitates work with community partners involved with the creation and development of talent. Nic works with the Dubuque Works partners on regional initiatives that include Opportunity Dubuque and Inclusive Dubuque.
James Hoelscher, CEcD
Marketing
James Hoelscher is a Senior Program Manager with the Institute for Decision Making (IDM) at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). As Senior Program Manager, James provides consultation to rural/urban community and economic development organizations undertaking strategic planning related to entrepreneurship, business retention, industry recruitment, community-wide planning, marketing, tourism, and organizational structure. He coordinates UNI’s Economic Development Administration University Center and is the Director of the Heartland Economic Development Course. James is the current president of the Professional Developers of Iowa, a member of the Iowa Rural Development Council, as well as a taskforce member of the Iowa Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative.
Shannon Landauer, CEcD
Site Selection
Shannon Landauer is President & CEO for the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation. With more than a decade of experience in economic development, she has administered business retention and expansion activities, carried out business recruitment strategies, identified and implemented workforce development strategies, worked to develop a long-term housing strategy, and provided guidance for new economic developers and business members in her region. Shannon is currently the President of the Professional Developers of Iowa.
Carol Lilly
Neighborhood/Community Development
Carol Lilly is a Downtown Development Specialist with Iowa Downtown Resource Center’s Main Street Iowa program. In this role, she provides technical assistance services to Main Street Iowa communities. Prior to joining Main Street Iowa, Carol was the Executive Director of Community Main Street in Cedar Falls Iowa. She has worked in the fields of property management, retail management, and marketing in Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Minnesota. She has experience working with large, small and independently owned businesses.
Jonathan Long
Managing an EDO, Ethics
Jonathan Long is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Tulsa Regional Chamber. As VP of DEI, Jonathan provides staff support to Mosaic, the Chamber’s coalition of Tulsa-area companies and nonprofits committed to DEI. Founded in 2011, and recognized as a national model for chamber-led DEI programs, Mosaic convenes business and community leaders to promote diverse workforces, equitable business practices and inclusive workplaces. In addition to leading Mosaic, Jonathan helps guide the Chamber’s support of programs and systems that increase economic access and mobility in under-served communities. He works with CEOs and members of the Chamber’s Board of Directors to influence and raise awareness of DEI best practices. Prior to joining the Tulsa Regional Chamber, Jonathan served in Director of Community Advancement and Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion positions at the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Rick McDowell
Neighborhood/Community Development
Rick McDowell is the President of the Lee's Summit Economic Development Council in Lee's Summit, MO. Rick has been with LSEDC as President and CEO since August of 2014. He has more than 32 years of experience in economic development in a career that spans employment with the Missouri Department of Economic Development; the Columbia Regional Economic Development, Inc.; KPMG, LLP; PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Liberty Economic Development Council. He has had experience in state government, regional public/private partnership and as a business incentive/site selection consultant for several big four accounting firms. Rick currently serves as a commissioner for the Missouri Housing Development Commission.
Kiley Miller
Managing an EDO
Kiley Miller is currently the Executive Director of Trees Forever. Recently, Kiley served as President and CEO of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, a regional economic development organization serving Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet counties in Northwest Iowa. He previously was Executive Vice President of the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) Area Chamber Alliance. During Kiley’s 10-year career in economic development, he has supported more than $100 million in industrial development and dozens of small business starts and expansions, as well as advancing workforce development, housing, and community enhancement projects and programs.
Karla Organist, CEcD
Strategic Planning
Karla Organist is a Program Manager with the Institute for Decision Making (IDM) at the University of Northern Iowa. Karla assists communities, economic development organizations, and other nonprofits with strategic planning at varying levels of focus including community or region-wide planning, organizational planning, and workforce planning. She has additional responsibilities as assistant director for the Heartland Economic Development Course and as a team member on UNI's EDA University Center project. Karla has previous work experience in economic development; comprehensive, housing, hazard mitigation and transportation planning; entrepreneurship; and business consulting and financial training for childcare businesses.
Bethany Quinn
Marketing
Bethany Quinn is VP of Strategy & Content Development with Golden Shovel Agency. Since February 2016, she has held the positions of Lead Copywriter and Director of Content prior to becoming the VP of Strategy & Content Development. She is a co-host of Golden Shovel’s ShovelTalk podcast. Prior to Golden Shovel, Bethany co-owned a digital marketing and content development firm with an emphasis on supporting small businesses. She brought 10 years of content writing, digital marketing, SEO experience, and project management to the team. She also has her Bachelor of Science from Penn State University.
Ben Rao
Entrepreneurship
Ben Rao is the President & Founder of Bridge Space in Lee’s Summit, MO. Ben started Bridge Space in 2018 as a creative, supportive place for entrepreneurs to accelerate, advance and grow. Bridge Space offers memberships based on needs: coworking, a dedicated desk, or a private office. Members have access to the entire facility -- to work wherever and connect with others. Ben is a serial entrepreneur with endless energy. He is constantly coming up with bigger ideas and never stops thinking about the community around him.
David Robinson
Site Selection
David Robinson is a Principal with the Montrose Group. Dave Robinson provides corporate site location, economic development planning and lobbying consulting services for public and private sector clients based upon 30 years of experience. Prior to forming the Montrose Group, Dave managed law firm government relations practices, was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, executive at Ameritech; senior staff for Columbus Mayor Greg Lashutka, and general counsel of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. He is the author of Economic Development from the State & Local Perspective, and The Energy Economy. Dave has substantial economic development strategy experience including co-researching and drafting economic development strategic plans and infrastructure and incentive strategies, and has negotiated $150 M in local, state and federal financing for economic development projects through corporate site location and site development projects.
Leslie Rubin, Ph.D.
Site Selection
Leslie Rubin is President of Rubin Advisors, Inc., an economic development consulting firm serving private sector entities. Leslie has been providing economic development services to private sector companies for nearly 30 years, the majority of which were competitive interstate projects. She has also advised and consulted with manufacturers on environmental and health industry related issues. Her expertise comes from having owned, operated and managed economic development consulting firms and two biotechnology businesses, having served in the public sector as an administrator of a government division and having successfully obtained and administered millions in grants.
Mark Stanley, CEcD, EDFP
Financing
Mark Stanley is President & CEO of Skyline Commercial Capital. He started Skyline to help companies access the capital they need, and to help owners and managers navigate the world of business financing. He has had specialized training in business valuation, real estate financing, credit analysis, financial packaging, entrepreneurial consulting, lean manufacturing, and commercial loan brokering. Mark developed his skills over years working with manufacturing, retail, and service businesses. He has packaged financing for business starts, expansions, and acquisitions, and he has provided consulting services in valuation, business planning, strategic planning, and financial analysis. Mark has developed and delivered customized seminars on multiple business topics, and he has taught college level classes in statistics, entrepreneurship, finance, investments, and business management.
Mark Stombaugh
Financing
Mark Stombaugh is a Business Development Unit Director for the Missouri Department of Economic Development. He brings a strong background in economic development, stretching over 15 years, which has included program administration and project management throughout the state. Mark has also led multiple public-private partnerships; first in Lebanon and Laclede County, and then in the Liberty area in addition to experience with the City of Blue Springs as their Economic Development Manager. He is a Certified Economic Developer through the International Economic Development Council and is recognized as Economic Development Finance Professional by the National Development Council.
Jim Thompson, CMSM, HREDFP
Neighborhood and Community Development
Jim Thompson is a Downtown Economic Development Specialist with the Iowa Economic Development Authority, covering all areas of development for downtown & Main Street districts for the Iowa Downtown Resource Center and its Main Street Iowa program. He has over 25 years experience in community development, retail management as well as having served on a City Council for 10 years. In his current role, he engages communities in market analysis including data analysis, business retention, recruitment, and implementation strategies. He has also led efforts in tax increment finance, urban revitalization, housing & real estate development, branding and one-on-one business technical assistance for Iowa’s communities; and is the grant administrator for the Community Catalyst Building Remediation grant program. Jim serves on the Iowa Rural Development Council Executive Board and was named by the Governor to lead the Empower Rural Iowa Invest Taskforce. He has also served as a consultant for the National Main Street Center, worked in several states and has presented multiple times at the National Main Streets Conference.
Warren Westcott
Marketing
Warren Westcott is VP of Sales for Golden Shovel Agency. Since joining the team in May 2018, he has moved from Territory Sales Manager to National Sales Manager, and now VP of Sales. Warren holds a Bachelor's Degree from Iowa State University in Mass Communications and Media Studies. While in college, he had experience with what is now the Iowa Economic Development Authority in Des Moines. Warren's video production background prepared him well for working closely with video prospects/clients and the PlaceVR team.
Heartland Economic Development Course | University of Northern Iowa
113 Business and Community Services Bldg. | Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0186
PH: (800) 782-9520 | FAX: (319) 273-2787