CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH - Key Persons

Alan R. Durham

Job Titles:
  • Manager
  • Economic Development Director for Gwinnett County
  • Project Manager / IEDC Course Administrator
Alan Durham serves as a manager and IEDC economic development course director with Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²) in the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR). Prior to joining CEDR, Alan worked with city and county governments as an executive-level economic development director to accomplish economic development and community development goals. Alan is an expert at conducting fiscal impact analyses, has a successful track record negotiating incentives with Fortune 500 companies, and has extensive experience with tax increment financing and public/private partnerships to foster quality real estate development and redevelopment. Alan is CEDR's go-to expert for downtown development, real estate development, and community revitalization. As the Economic Development Director for Gwinnett County, Alan authored the County's Tax Allocation District Policies and Guidelines and created five new tax allocation districts to encourage redevelopment within the county's Community Improvement Districts. He also established the first Office of Economic Development for the City of West Palm Beach, Florida and created the city's economic development strategy. As the President/CEO of the Fayette County Development Authority, he created the county's tax incentive policy based on a corporation's average salary, capital investment, and number of new jobs created. Alan holds a Bachelor's degree in History and a Master's degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Georgia.

Alfie Meek

Job Titles:
  • Director
  • Member of the CEDR Team
  • Member of the Georgia Economic Developers Association
Alfie Meek, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Economic Development Research at the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²). He has more than 25 years of experience in economic/fiscal impact analysis and community-based research. Over the years Dr. Meek has served the State of Georgia in various roles including the technical advisory committee for the Georgia Rural Development Council and the Rural Research Consortium. Currently, Dr. Meek is serving as a member of Governor Kemp's Coronavirus Task Force Economic Impact Committee. Before joining EI², Alfie served for nine years as the Chief Economist and Director of Economic Development for the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners. In that role, he was integral in the development and implementation of Partnership Gwinnett, a community-wide strategic plan that was named the best multi-year economic development program for large communities by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in 2010. Before his time in Gwinnett County, he spent three years as the Director of Applied Research at The University of Georgia's Business Outreach Services and Small Business Development Center, and served for five years on the faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an economist and project director for the Center for Economic Development Services. Preceding his tenure at Georgia Tech, Alfie was the Research Economist for SunTrust Banks, Inc. Current areas of special focus include economic/fiscal impact analysis, forecasting and modeling, work-force issues, tax policy analysis, and target industry analysis. In addition to his research, Dr. Meek speaks widely on topics relating to economic impact and economic development. Dr. Meek is on the board of the Georgia Academy of Economic Development and has spoken to more than to 4,300 elected officials and local leaders from each of the 159 counties in Georgia on the importance of fiscal impact analysis in their economic development efforts. Dr. Meek has also written for economic development-related publications, as well as other periodicals. His research on the size and economic impact of the sports industry in the United States was published in Sports Marketing Quarterly. This research has been written about and cited in numerous publications - USA Today, Georgia Trend, Financial Times London, Fortune Magazine, and Investor's Business Daily among others. Alfie is an active member of the Georgia Economic Developers Association (GEDA); the National Association for Business Economics (NABE); and is past president of the Atlanta Economics Club. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from The University of Georgia; a Master of Science in Business Economics from Georgia State University; and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Betsy McGriff

Job Titles:
  • Project Manager
  • Project Manager With Georgia Tech 's Enterprise Innovation Institute
Betsy McGriff serves as a Project Manager with Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²) in the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR). Prior to joining CEDR, Betsy worked in the public, private, and utility sectors in a variety of economic and community development roles. Betsy is an expert in rural development with deep relationships throughout Georgia. During her time as the Economic Development Director for Dawson County, Betsy successfully applied for several grants, including funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission to initiate the county's first economic development strategic plan and from Georgia's Rural Center to develop a county-wide comprehensive trail plan. While serving the University of Georgia's Archway Partnership, Betsy assisted communities with projects on a range of community development issues, including workforce and education, tourism, infrastructure, downtown development, and marketing and branding. Betsy has served as an elected official of the Town of Register, where her administration saw the enactment of the Town's first comprehensive zoning ordinance, a transition of municipal finances to a uniform chart of accounts, and a renegotiation of the SPLOST allocation. Betsy holds a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia Southern University.

Candice C. McKie

Job Titles:
  • Co - Director of Georgia Tech 's EDA University Center
  • Project Manager / EDRP Coordinator
  • Project Manager at Georgia Tech 's Enterprise Innovation Institute
As Co-Director of Georgia Tech's EDA University Center, Ms. McKie oversees the Economic Development Research Program (EDRP), an initiative dedicated to delivering research services to rural and economically distressed communities. Additionally, she leads tourism investment validation studies and performs fiscal and economic impact analyses. Before joining EI2, Candice served as a Program Analyst with the Gwinnett County Division of Economic Analysis, where she honed her research and analytical skills. Over four years, she conducted various research projects, analyzed local economic and demographic data, constructed econometric models for revenue forecasting, and prepared fiscal analyses to inform decision-making processes. Candice earned her Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness and Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from the University of Georgia. Candice Clark McKie, a Project Manager at Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), specializes in using data-driven approaches to support communities and organizations in understanding their operational environment. Her expertise extends to analyzing workforce systems to help direct future workforce development efforts and providing strategic economic development support to communities seeking to foster growth and prosperity.

Emily Lasser

Job Titles:
  • Project Manager

Grace Barrett

Job Titles:
  • Project Manager
  • Associate Project Manager With Georgia Tech 's Enterprise Innovation Institute
Grace Barrett is an Associate Project Manager with Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²) in the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR). Grace is a planner specializing in housing and community development. Before joining CEDR, Grace worked as an urban planner in the private sector, managing neighborhood plans. She was specifically responsible for determining the financial feasibility of proposed projects, drafting implementation plans, and ensuring the final planning document was accessible to all stakeholders. Grace graduated from The University of Georgia, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Geography. She also holds a Master of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) and a Master of Real Estate Development from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Leigh Hopkins

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director
Leigh Hopkins is the Assistant Director of the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) at Georgia Tech. As a planner specializing in economic and community development, Leigh empowers her clients with the tools to build strong and resilient regions, create a prepared and trained workforce, and help communities secure the resources they need to capitalize on their strengths. Leigh works with her team at CEDR to help create competitive economic climates for communities and businesses to grow and thrive. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Leigh worked as a senior planner for the City of Atlanta with a focus on zoning and development compliance, and in the private sector as a planning consultant with a focus on place-based economic development issues. Since joining Georgia Tech in 2008, Leigh has conducted numerous studies and plans for communities across Georgia. A specialist in strategic planning and workforce development, Leigh managed the federal, multi-agency Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) initiative for the 15-county Northwest Georgia region for five years, and the development and implementation of the first Advanced Manufacturing Strategy in the state. Leigh also co-managed a project to gauge the feasibility of developing an "innovation district" near Atlanta's Westside, intended to spur collisions between industry and academia to create the environment for technological innovation and new partnerships. Leigh developed strategic priorities assessments for rural communities across the state and led a county-level impact assessment of covid-19 on the Northeast Georgia region. Recently, Leigh developed the first Economic Recovery + Resilience strategic plan for the 14-county Southwest Georgia region after it was impacted by Hurricane Michael in 2018. Leigh is leading workforce development program for the Northwest Georgia region through the state's High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) and is developing manufacturing-focused strategies for nine regions in Georgia, creating a "Communities of Practice" for the Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (GA-AIM) project through EDA's Build Back Better initiative. Leigh was the course director (2014 - 2017 and 2019) for all of Georgia Tech's economic development courses, including the Georgia Tech Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC), accredited through the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). Leigh is an active member of the American Planning Association (APA)/Georgia Planning Association (GPA) and has held an American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) certification since 2010. Leigh is also a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), certified and accredited by IEDC since 2023. She participates in regular professional development courses through membership with IEDC and GPA and is also an active member of the Georgia Economic Development Association (GEDA). Leigh holds a bachelor's degree in Forest Resources from the University of Georgia and a master's degree in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Reba Adams

Job Titles:
  • Project Manager
  • Member of the Georgia Economic Developers Association
  • Project Manager With the
Reba Adams is a Project Manager with the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) at Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI 2). As an economist, she works to support communities through demographic and economic data analysis, economic and fiscal impact analysis, and industry and workforce trend reporting. Since joining CEDR in 2018, Reba has performed economic impact analyses for industries broad as Georgia's film industry and distinct as agritourism in Gilmer County, Georgia. Applying her background in data analytics, Reba has also completed fiscal impact analyses, cost of community services studies, and industry ecosystem reports for various communities and clients. She has also authored Georgia Economic Outlook annual reports for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) Atlanta Regional Office since 2019. Prior to joining CEDR, Reba worked as a Revenue Analyst for Delta Vacations, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, applying her background in data analytics and statistical modeling to monitor revenue trends. Reba also previously interned with the Global Commerce research team at the Georgia Department of Economic Development where she supported the state's growth initiatives through community research and economic impact analysis. Reba is an active member of the Georgia Economic Developers Association (GEDA) and the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master's degree in Economics-STEM from Georgia State University.