Specifically, he investigates how institutional factors shape the perception of firms by critical stakeholders. His research also explores the antecedents and consequences of human capital mobility and how different forms of employee movement impact a firm’s ability to compete with rivals.

Dr. Bermiss teaches courses in people analytics, managing human capital, leading for impact and organizational theory and design

He is a Fellow at the Filene Institute where he leads the research efforts of the “War for Talent” Center of Excellence.

His award-winning research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal and Research in Organizational Behavior. His research has been highlighted by Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio.

He was honored as a Poets & Quants 2018 Top Undergraduate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served on the faculty before joining UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Before entering academia, Dr. Bermiss worked for Deloitte Consulting in New York City.

He received his PhD and MS management and organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and his BS in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Susan previously served as CEO of the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), chief operating officer of 2U (NASDAQ: TWOU), president of UNC Executive Development and founding executive director of MBA@UNC.

Prior to her operating roles, Susan was a partner and led global acquisitions at Best Associates, a private equity firm with investments primarily in the education sector. She was part of the founding team and principal of ThinkEquity Partners, an investment banking boutique, where she led the education investment banking practice. She previously worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and corporate banking at Wachovia Bank.

Susan earned her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and her BA from Duke University. She serves as a director on the boards of multiple fund portfolio companies, in addition to the board of Primo Water Corporation (NYSE: PRMW) and the Board of Advisors for UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji, Ph.D. is the Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor of Business and Public Policy at Duke University. He is currently the Chief Economist of OpenAI, where he leads a team of researchers exploring the economic and societal impacts of artificial intelligence.

Ronnie works at the intersection of academia, public policy and business, investigating the most important forces shaping our economy and society. His primary appointment is in the Fuqua School of Business, from where he has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles in the top journals in strategic management, economics, finance and organizational studies and two books, “Can Business Save the Earth?” (Stanford University Press) and “The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth” (University of Chicago Press).

Chatterji is committed to public service, both at the national level and in his home state of North Carolina. He most recently held senior economic policy positions in the Biden Administration. Chatterji served as the White House CHIPS coordinator, overseeing the implementation of the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act, one of the largest industrial policy initiatives in a generation. He was also the Acting Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council, overseeing the Administration’s work on supporting American manufacturing, building more resilient supply chains, and driving technological innovation. Prior to his White House role, he served as the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he was the principal economic adviser to the Secretary of Commerce and responsible for policy development related to U.S. competitiveness, innovation, trade and economic growth.

Ronnie previously worked for President Obama as a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Chatterji served on the North Carolina FIRST Commission and the Governor’s Entrepreneurial Council, two statewide bodies advising Governor Roy Cooper on economic policy. During his sabbatical leave in 2020, Ronnie ran for State Treasurer of North Carolina, winning the statewide primary election and earning more than 2 million votes in the general election.

He has received several awards for his research, including the Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in entrepreneurship, the Rising Star award from the Aspen Institute, and the Strategic Management Society Emerging Scholar award. Chatterji has authored several op-ed pieces in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, including influential essays introducing the concept of CEO activism with co-author Michael Toffel. He writes widely for management and policy audiences with several recent pieces in Harvard Business Review and for the Brookings Institution.

Ronnie has won multiple teaching awards at Duke, both for his teaching in the core curriculum and electives. He created a new elective on business and politics that was profiled in national media and became one of the most popular courses at the Fuqua School of Business. He is a frequent keynote speaker and experienced facilitator who has worked with top companies in finance, healthcare, technology, energy, retail, real estate and sports.

Chatterji is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and was previously a visiting Associate Professor at The Harvard Business School. He also holds a secondary appointment at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Ronnie was previously a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. He received his Ph.D. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in Economics from Cornell University.

He has worked in both the public and private sectors focusing on the intersection between financial markets and economic fundamentals. During the Obama Administration Gerald was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Treasury where he helped formulate and evaluate the impact of policy proposals on the U.S. economy. Prior to Treasury, he co-managed a global macro fund at Ziff Brothers Investments.

Gerald holds a bachelor’s of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and is a contributing author to 30-Second Money as well as a co-author of Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Cox is the 11th president of the North Carolina Community College System. A native of Alleghany County, North Carolina, he brings three decades of academic and leadership experience.

Cox earned his Bachelor of Science in English-secondary education from Appalachian State University in 1992 and later completed a Master of School Administration degree from ASU. He also holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

His career began in Greensboro and Sparta, where he received the North Carolina Principal Fellows Scholarship. He served as assistant principal at Indian Trail Elementary School and as principal at Benton Heights Elementary. Cox’s leadership extended to roles such as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction with Lee County Schools.

In 2005, he became Superintendent of Schools for Alleghany County, achieving remarkable academic success. He was appointed to state education boards and received an Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence in 2017 while serving as the President of Wilkes Community College. Cox, along with his wife Reba and their three sons, Dylan, Evan, and Zack, continues to make impactful contributions to education.

David Deming is the Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the Faculty Dean of Kirkland House at Harvard College and a Research Associate at NBER. From 2021 to 2024 he served as the Academic Dean of HKS.

His research focuses on higher education, economic inequality, skills, technology, and the future of the labor market. He is a Principal Investigator (along with Raj Chetty and John Friedman) at the CLIMB Initiative, an organization that seeks to study and improve the role of higher education in social mobility. He is also a faculty lead of the Project on Workforce, a cross-Harvard initiative that focuses on building better pathways to economic mobility through the school-to-work transition. He recently co-founded (with Ben Weidmann) the Skills Lab, which creates performance-based measures of “soft” skills such as teamwork and decision-making.

In 2022, he won the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to Labor Economics. In 2018, he was awarded the David N. Kershaw Prize for distinguished contributions to the field of public policy and management under the age of 40. He served as a Coeditor of the AEJ: Applied from 2018 to 2021. He writes occasional columns in The Atlantic and previously for the New York Times Economic View, as well as on his Substack newsletter Forked Lightning. You can find his research and other details on his personal website.

Elizabeth Faber is Deloitte’s Global Chief People & Purpose Officer. She is a member of the Deloitte Global Executive Committee and chairs the Global Talent Executive, Global Inclusion Executive, and Global Purpose Executive.

In her current role leading Global People & Purpose, she collaborates with member firm and global business leadership, and the Global Executive Committee to define the People & Purpose agenda globally in service to Deloitte’s partners and people. She leads the development and activation of strategies to deliver a distinctive and inclusive Deloitte talent experience around the globe and embed Deloitte’s Purpose to help drive significant positive environmental and social impact.

Elizabeth is the Executive responsible for the sustainability strategies and results for Deloitte and serves on the Executive Committee of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Elizabeth has been with Deloitte over 30 years. She previously led People & Purpose for the Asia Pacific (AP) member firm, as a founding member of the first AP Executive Committee.

She has been recognized on multiple occasions internally and externally as a strong advocate for inclusion and for her Human Resources leadership.

Elizabeth lived in Asia for 20 years with her husband of over 30 years, and their two daughters, who were both born in China. She has an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and a BS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, a commercial banking executive with more than 25 years of experience, is President of Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, and Head of National Mid-Corporate and Industry Verticals.

He serves on Citizens Financial Group’s (CFG) Executive Leadership Group, the company’s senior leadership team. CFG is headquartered in Providence, R.I.

Fitzpatrick, a native of Philadelphia, is a former chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and serves on its executive committee and its CEO Council for Growth. As chairman of the CEO Council’s Human Capital Working Group, Fitzpatrick has focused on the development of programs and initiatives aimed at workforce development in order to facilitate economic growth and employment opportunity.  Dan is also a member of the Board of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and a member of the Heinz History Museum Board in Pittsburgh.

Active in the community, he is a member of the board of trustees of La Salle University, the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition and a member of the executive committee of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is a member of the board of directors of the Wistar Institute and on the Advisory Board of Drexel University’s College of Engineering.  Dan was recently appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter to the Philadelphia Works Board of Directors and appointed the presiding Chairperson of the Philadelphia Council for Colleage and Career Success Sub-Committee.

As a result of Fitzpatrick’s community efforts, Citizens Bank and Fitzpatrick individually have received numerous community awards, including the Police Athletic League Award, the Philadelphia Academies Inc. Stand and Deliver Award, and the YMCA of Philadelphia and Vicinity’s John Wanamaker Corporate Award.

Fitzpatrick earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from La Salle University and an M.B.A. from Drexel University. He is a CPA and a Chartered Financial Analyst. Fitzpatrick lives in Newtown, Pa., with his wife Beth and their four children.

The academic interests of Mary Margaret Frank include the integration of business principles and public policy objectives, cross-sector collaboration and leadership, and sustainable investing. These interests stem from her research on the effects of regulation – specifically tax, financial accounting, and patent reporting – on the strategy of corporate management, investors and entrepreneurs.

An award-winning teacher and researcher and academic leader, Dr. Frank was named dean of UNC Kenan-Flagler effective Aug. 15, 2023.

She is a Triple Tar Heel, an academic fellow at the UNC Tax Center and has taught in the Master of Accounting Program.

Dr. Frank returns to UNC Kenan-Flagler from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where she was senior associate dean for faculty development, John Tyler Professor of Business Administration.

She also was co-founder and academic director of the Institute for Business in Society. In that role she led the development of the P3 Impact Award, which recognizes leading cross-sector collaboration to improve communities around the world, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships and Concordia. Her passion for cross-sector collaboration also led her to establish the Tri-Sector Leadership Fellows program, which brings together graduate students from business, law and public policy.

She also served on the faculty of University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she received its Phoenix Award in recognition of the faculty who, in addition to classroom responsibilities, has greatly enriched the learning experience of campus students.

Dr. Frank served as a board director and chairperson of the audit committee of a small publicly traded company, The Female Health Company, for 14 years, which merged with a biotech company in 2016 to become Veru Inc. The medical device company’s mission was to empower women, most of whom were from developing economies, to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS.

She practiced as a CPA and senior tax consultant for Arthur Andersen in Washington, D.C, before she returned to UNC Kenan-Flagler to enroll in the PhD Program in accounting.

She received her PhD, Master of Accounting and BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Annelies Goger is an economic geographer focused on developing innovative policy solutions to increase economic opportunity in the U.S. Dr. Goger’s recent work investigates how to align education systems and employer demand to scale earn-and-learn opportunities in the U.S.; how to improve labor and education data systems to promote skills-based practices in hiring; and how to improve economic mobility for youth through human-centered program design. She is an expert in U.S. workforce development policy, apprenticeships, global supply chains, and economic development.  

Dr. Goger’s work has been prominently featured in TEDx San Quentin, CNN, NPR, Washington Monthly, The Hill, and a number of local outlets and podcasts. Dr. Goger’s work has challenged the dominant “skills gap” narrative, arguing that building stronger education and labor market institutions, addressing information asymmetries about careers and resulting patterns of occupational segregation, and making long-term investments in talent development are the key to unleashing regional innovation and addressing racial and gender inequities in the labor market. 

Chris Harrington has more than two decades of federal governmental relations, advocacy and communications experience in our nation’s capital. As associate vice president, Chris is responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing the university’s federal relations activities and serving as an advocate for the university on federal matters, including education, healthcare and research.

Prior to joining the University of California in 2001, Chris worked for the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP), which was a bipartisan and intergovernmental body of federal and state policymakers created in July 1990 to assess and report state and national progress toward achieving the National Education Goals. Before joining the NEGP, Chris was a legislative staff member for United States Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.

While working for Sen. Bingaman, Chris focused on a range of issues including education, housing, labor, transportation and governmental affairs. Chris received his B.A. in political science from Loyola University in Maryland. After completing his studies at Loyola, Chris joined Mercy Corps and spent a year doing full-time volunteer service with Native American students in New Mexico.

Timitra Hildebrand-Jones serves as Vice President, Culture at Albemarle Corporation.

She previously spent 14 years at Trane Technologies, where she held various HR roles, most recently serving as Director of Diversity & Inclusion. In that position, she led company-wide DEI strategies, partnering with a global network of diversity champions, councils, and Employee Resource Groups across a workforce of 40,000 employees.

With over 20 years of HR experience, Timitra has also held roles in employee relations, recruiting, and HR generalist functions at Bank of America, Lincoln Financial Group, and GMAC Insurance.

She holds a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University, an M.S. in Human Resources and Labor Relations from North Carolina A&T State University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Timitra serves on the board of Make-A-Wish Central and Western North Carolina and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She was named one of Diversity Global Magazine’s 2021 Top 15 Champions of Diversity.

Originally from Reidsville, N.C., Timitra lives in Charlotte with her husband, DeJuan, and their two children.

Cecilia Holden serves as the President and CEO for myFutureNC, a statewide initiative focused on the state’s educational attainment goal. Among other public service, she served as the Chief of Staff for the North Carolina Department of Commerce and Director of Government and Community Affairs for the State Board of Education. Her private sector experience includes a career with IBM, as well as a Registered Investment Advisory firm. Holden holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Duke University, a certificate in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina School of Government and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Business from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

He previously served as the institute’s director of business development and finance. Prior to joining the institute, David was director of economic development and engagement for UNC’s Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), where he led the formation of two public-private partnerships: the National Consortium for Data Science and the iRODS Consortium.

David has a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Virginia, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Jeff Korzenik provides research and analysis that impacts Fifth Third’s key markets, providing insight to business leaders and policymakers throughout the country.

He is an award-winning author whose writings have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Newsweek and many other national and regional publications, and Jeff­ has appeared regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business News. Policymakers have sought his expertise on a variety of topics, leading to his testifying before state legislatures and on Capitol Hill.

His groundbreaking book, “Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works for Your Business and the Community” (HarperCollins Leadership, April 2021), shares the business case and best practices of hiring people with criminal records. He was elected to membership in the Council on Criminal Justice in recognition of his work on the intersection of the justice system and the labor market.

Jeff­ is a graduate of Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a certificate of proficiency in Near Eastern Studies.

Camelia Kuhnen is an expert in household finance, labor and finance, and neuroeconomics. Her work has an interdisciplinary nature, with the overarching theme of trying to understand how people make financial and economic choices that concern them as individuals or as decision makers in firms.

She serves as department editor at Management Science and associate editor at the Journal of Finance. Previously she was an editor at the Review of Corporate Finance Studies and associate editor at the Review of Financial Studies.

Dr. Kuhnen is the incoming president of the Society for Experimental Finance, has served as president of the Society for Neuroeconomics, and is a director of the American Finance Association.

She is a faculty affiliate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and also serves as director of research at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Prior to joining the faculty at UNC Kenan-Flagler, Dr. Kuhnen served on the faculty of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

She received her Ph.D. in finance from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and two bachelor’s degrees – in finance and neuroscience – from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Elizabeth “Beth” Mayer-Davis, Ph.D., RD, is the dean of The Graduate School and the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Medicine. She has focused her career on diabetes, including the epidemiology and natural history of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in children and adults. Throughout her career, Dean Beth Mayer-Davis has mentored numerous graduate students. She is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and ensuring that our graduate students have access to professional development and mental health and well-being tools to support them during their time at Carolina.

Dean Mayer-Davis believes that graduate students are emblematic of innovation made fundamental and are capable and prepared to address humanity’s greatest challenges. Simply put, graduate students are pivotal to how Carolina powers its economic and research engine—reaching all areas of our state through research, teaching, and public service. Under her leadership, The Graduate School supports graduate students and champions graduate education in our state.

Formerly the chair of the Department of Nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, she also co-directs the Nutrition Obesity Research Center. An accomplished scholar, she is the principal investigator for the Carolina site of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study, and she serves as the national co-chairperson for a large multi-center study. She has served on the University’s Faculty Executive Committee for several years. Dean Mayer-Davis serves as principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health Nutrition for Precision Health Consortium initiative and has received additional funding from the NIH to promote diversity in nutrition, obesity, and diabetes research. She is active in the American Diabetes Association and was the 2011 president for Health Care and Education for the Association.

Dean Mayer-Davis was recently appointed to the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by the Secretary of the USDA and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has also served as an appointee of President Obama on the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health.

Ari Medoff, is the CEO of Arosa. He has been working to create better jobs and superior business models in the senior care industry since 2012.

Ari is President of Jewish for Good and serves on the boards of the Durham Convention Center, Duke’s Aging Center Advisory Board and Learning Innovation Advisory Council, A.M. and R.Z. Fleishman Foundation, and Canary Benefits.

Ari earned an MBA/MPP at the Harvard Business School and Kennedy School of Government with Rubenstein and George Fellowships, and graduated from Duke University as a BN Duke Scholar. He went to Durham Tech to become a CNA in 2013.

She has several research projects looking at income inequality and the role of firms. She also has researched ESOP (employee share ownership plans) and employee stock options and their impact on labor productivity, wages and turnover.

Her research agenda is concentrated at the juncture of finance and labor economics. She is interested in how decisions studied in finance impact employee stakeholders – specifically how those effects are reflected in firm performance and, hence, corporate finance decisions.

Her work has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies and Journal of Financial Economics.

Paige worked at The Center for Clean Air Policy, an independent, nonprofit think tank working on climate and air quality policy at the local, U.S. national and international levels.

She received her Ph.D. and MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and her B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Ms. Peluso is Chief Executive Officer of Revlon Group Holdings LLC and a member of its Board of Directors. She is leading a holistic transformation of the company, driving consumer centricity across the organization and leveraging her deep digital experience to drive innovation. As an experienced brand-builder, she is passionate about maximizing the potential of Revlon’s powerful collection of brands, ensuring they remain deeply loved for generations of beauty and wellness consumers to come.

Prior to Revlon, Ms. Peluso was the Executive Vice President and Chief Customer and Experience Officer at CVS Health, where she oversaw the end-to-end consumer experience across all channels, including leading the brand and marketing efforts. She also previously served as co-President, Pharmacy and Consumer Wellness, where she transformed the retail business across 9,000 stores.
Prior to joining CVS Health, Ms. Peluso was Senior Vice President, Digital Sales and Chief Marketing Officer at IBM from 2016 to 2021. She oversaw marketing, digital sales, client experience and the commercial business, globally.

Ms. Peluso previously served as Chief Executive Officer of online shopping destination Gilt Groupe, Inc. (“Gilt”) from 2013 until its sale to Hudson’s Bay Company in February 2016, and was on Gilt’s Board of Directors from 2009 to 2016.
Before Gilt, Ms. Peluso served as Global Consumer Chief Marketing and Internet Officer of Citigroup Inc. She was the CEO of Travelocity and the Founder and CEO of Site59, an online travel site that Travelocity acquired. She started her career as a consultant and case leader at the Boston Consulting Group in New York.

Ms. Peluso earned a BA in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and an MA in philosophy, politics and economics from Pembroke College at Oxford University as a Thouron Scholar. She is a White House Fellow and served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Labor. Ms. Peluso is on the board of Nike, and she lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

Roberts is a longtime advocate for higher education and for the state of North Carolina. He served as a member of the UNC System Board of Governors and as the chair of its budget committee. He has held positions on the State Board of Community Colleges, North Carolina’s Banking Commission and the Board of Visitors at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, where, for the last five years he taught public budgeting to graduate students. Roberts has also served as a board member at the Golden LEAF Foundation, which invests in educational and economic opportunities for North Carolina’s rural communities. He was honored to serve as state budget director under Gov. Pat McCrory from 2014 to 2016.

Before serving as interim chancellor, he was the co-founder and managing partner of SharpVue Capital, a North Carolina investment firm that specializes in stewarding institutional funds and growing local economies.

As a highly accomplished leader in the public and private sectors, Thomas Stith has an extraordinary record of improving operations, increasing productivity, and scaling revenue. He is recognized as a thought leader on economic development, small business, investment, development opportunities and public policy.

Thomas’s career spans numerous industries, including state and local government, higher education, technology, nonprofits, health care, transportation and energy/utilities. His commitment to driving measurable organizational and community change is at the core of his work.

Earlier in his career, Thomas served as a Special Assistant to the Governor of North Carolina. He also served three terms as a Councilman with the City of Durham. Later, he returned to the Governor’s Office as Governor McCrory’s Chief of Staff, where among other responsibilities, he led the establishment of the $60M Venture Capital Multiplier Fund to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the state.

Thomas’s devotion to improving his community is evidenced through his work with organizations such as the U.S. Small Business Administration, where he served as the District Director for North Carolina and the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the SBA, he facilitated $16B in direct assistance to North Carolina small businesses, contributing to the stability and growth of the state during the COVID 19 pandemic. Through his work with the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Thomas bolstered the entrepreneurial and small business ecosystem of North Carolina and promoted private enterprise as a critical component of capitalism.

Thomas’s most recent tenure was as President of the North Carolina Community College System, the nation’s third largest, comprised of 58 individual colleges across North Carolina. During his tenure, he secured a historic $1.4B legislative investment, turned around a declining enrollment, and redesigned recruiting efforts that resulted in an unprecedented number of diversity hires within the senior team leadership.

Thomas earned a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Business Administration from North Carolina Central University. He is also certified in nonprofit management from Duke University and holds a Directorship Certification from the National Association of Corporate Directors. Thomas and his wife Yolanda have three adult children and live in the Triangle area of North Carolina. Stith was a 2023 Distinguished Fellow and participated in the Kenan Institute Grand Challenge Workforce Disrupted: Seeking the Labor Market’s Next Equilibrium.

Telly Tucker joined the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) as the organization’s first President in 2022. In this role, he provides high-level, strategic leadership as IALR continues its mission to catalyze regional economic transformation. Under Tucker’s stewardship, IALR continues to demonstrate success in economic development, workforce development, applied research, advanced learning and conferencing services. For the past three years, IALR has grown substantially to more than 150 employees and has developed a national reputation in delivering manufacturing training and technology development initiatives in partnership with the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense.

Previously Tucker served as Director of Arlington Economic Development, where he led a team that successfully landed companies like Boeing’s Global Headquarters and Microsoft while continuing to build on the momentum of Amazon HQ2. Prior to that role, Tucker served five years as the Director of Economic Development for the City of Danville, where he experienced much success helping to revive the Southern Virginia economy with major economic development announcements like AeroFarms, FasTech and Litehouse. Before holding other various state and local economic development and leadership roles, Tucker began his career as an educator for Lynchburg City Schools.

Tucker holds current board appointments for the IALR Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation, Southern Virginia Regional Alliance (Chair), Dan River Business Development Center, Future of the Piedmont Foundation, Danville Area Development Foundation, Danville Industrial Development and Goodwill Industries of the Valleys. He has served on various other boards in the past, including the Leadership Center for Excellence Board of Regents and George Mason University President’s Innovation Advisory Council. Tucker has received the prestigious Certified Economic Development (CEcD) designation granted by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in Washington, D.C., and for four consecutive years has been named to the Virginia 500 Power List of most powerful and influential leaders in business, government, politics and education. Tucker is an accomplished pianist, a Lynchburg native and obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration in international business and Spanish from James Madison University.

Tara Watson is the director of the Center for Economic Security and Opportunity (formerly the Center on Children and Families) at the Brookings Institution. She is also professor of economics at Williams College, where she has been on the faculty since 2004; a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. Watson was deputy assistant secretary of microeconomic analysis at the U.S. Treasury from 2015 to 2016. She has also been a visiting researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan, and a research associate with Princeton University’s Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. She earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1996 and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 2003.

Watson’s work focuses on U.S. social policy, including immigration and the safety net. Watson’s book with journalist Kalee Thompson, “The Border Within: The Economics of Immigration in an Age of Fear,” was published by University of Chicago Press in 2021.

Watson lives in the D.C. area with her family and poorly behaved dog.