An accidental economist

I remember it like it was yesterday.

I was standing in Boston's South Station watching the commuter rail train schedule display the list of trains taking commuters from Boston to Worcester.   An unremarkable moment except for the fact that this was the first day that expanded train service between the Hub of the Universe and the Heart of the Commonwealth was finally happening.  As the author of the report that had made the case for this service expansion, it was an especially satisfying moment.

Ironically, that same day I received a letter from the Editor of a reasonably prestigious academic journal informing me that, after several rounds of revisions, they had finally agreed to publish a paper I had written along with the Chair of my dissertation committee.  It was a very anti-climactic experience.

That day I was given the rare opportunity of seeing two different professional paths laid out clearly before me.  The first, a traditional academic career, seemed much less fulfilling than the opportunity to make a difference in the so-called real world.  The path I had been on for nearly a decade shifted significantly.  I would defer the dream of "the life of the mind" and focus my efforts on applied public policy research.  Shortly thereafter I defended my dissertation and was awarded a Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston University.

Within a year, after answering a newspaper ad, I was hired into what at the time was the ideal position for someone with my aspirations in Massachusetts.  In June of 2001 I joined the UMass Donahue Institute as their Director of Economic and Public Policy Research, a position I held until August of 2009.

My time with the Institute was a very intense and professionally rewarding period in my life.  Over the years, the economic and public policy research enterprise grew from a staff of two to more than twelve and our grant and contract revenue grew tenfold -- reaching about $1.5 million annually by the end of my tenure. The public influence of our research activities grew substantially and, perhaps most importantly, I had the opportunity to mentor and work alongside an extraordinary group of talented analysts and managers.  Together we built something that continues to make me very proud.

The Economic and Public Policy Research group was home to three major activities;  The State Data Center (and Population Estimates research program), MassBenchmarks (the journal of the Massachusetts economy published by UMass in collaboration with the Boston Fed) and grant and contract funded research that over the years produced numerous studies of the state's people, economy and industry base.  This work afforded me the opportunity to become well versed in the challenges and opportunities facing the Commonwealth, its regions and 351 communities.

During this period I also spent a significant amount of time working with the New England Economic Partnership (NEEP),  a non-profit organization which for over thirty years has prepared semi-annual economic forecasts for each of the New England states.  I served for a year as the Massachusetts Forecast Manager and then for three years as the organization's President.   It was during this time that, as I like to say, I became an accidental economist.

In the summer of 2009 I was presented with an opportunity to assume a more traditional role within the University of Massachusetts system and to help grow a young but promising graduate public policy program. I found myself back at South Station -- reconsidering my professional direction and contemplating a return to a more traditional path.

In the end, it was UMass Dartmouth's sincere commitment to public service and civic engagement that closed the deal.  I would be given the opportunity to continue to work on economic and public policy issues that I thought were critically important to the future of the Commonwealth and help to train the next generation of policy analysts, public managers and policymakers.  And, significantly, I would have the academic freedom and the time to do things like start a blog.
 
About this blog

This blog is primarily designed to provide a forum for a non-partisan and evidence based discussion of economic conditions and public policy issues in Massachusetts.  

In this blog, I speak for myself and consequently its contents do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official position of my employer (the University of Massachusetts) or of any organization or board of directors with which I am otherwise affiliated.