Please allow me to introduce you to my expanded role at the CED!

Last month, I was promoted to Associate Director of Research. This short article explains my expanded role and how you can help me help you and your communities.

In my 17-year tenure here at CED, I've developed what we think is a unique specialty: to design custom research and analysis to answer questions not well-answered by standard methods. Some recent examples include:

*    Economic impact analysis for which standard IMPLAN or REMI economic models are ill-suited, such as our analysis for Sandia National Laboratories.

*    Data for health needs assessments we build using a variety of sources and survey cross-tabulations to help our clients understand the communities they serve, like our Affordable Care Act Insurance Mapping.

*    Datasets we build for hard-to-measure areas like the Lake Tahoe Basin, which is comprised of minority portions of six counties across two states.

*    Models for local economic development we create, like the Biomass Site Optimization Model (BioSOM). 

*    Models we've developed that are used by the California Public Utilities Commission to create estimates of total households served by broadband from availability data they collect.

*    Data we built showing state leaders the economic impact of switching California's business incentives plan.

In May of 2013, I began working at the Center for Economic Development as a student research assistant. This fall I will be entering my fourth and final year as an undergraduate at California State University, Chico. As an International Economics major, with minors in International Relations and French at CSU, Chico, this internship is the perfect complement to my degree and an excellent opportunity in which to garner first-hand experience in my chosen industry.
  
Initially I began my internship collecting data for the 2012-13 Economic and Demographic Profile Series, where I became quite skilled in using Microsoft Excel and Adobe InDesign. From there my skill set has grown enormously as I have been enlisted in numerous other projects. With little previous business experience, it has been a fascinating opportunity to work closely with small businesses all across Northern California to help them develop their ideas and enhance their businesses performance. Some of the services that I have personally performed include researching a business' competition, identifying markets and areas for potential expansion, and helping people's business plans come to fruition.

Other everyday tasks that I work on include customer service and economic impact surveys, technical assistance for clients, and data collection for federally qualified health centers.
 
The skills I have learned in such a short time have greatly surpassed my initial expectations from an undergraduate internship. My experience here at CED has been wonderful.  I enjoy the people I work with as well as the work I do. My greatest enjoyment from this internship is the fulfillment I receive every day. Not only is the work challenging, in a positive way as I acquire new knowledge and skills, but meaningful as we assist business owners in fulfilling their lifelong dreams. Having this opportunity to apply what I am learning in college to real life situations is an incredible privilege and something I am very thankful for.