Home Team

Meet the Team

Meet the researchers, analysts, and developers behind the Regional Clusters platform.

Meet the Team

A multidisciplinary team dedicated to advancing regional economic development research.

Principal Investigator

Indraneel Kumar, PhD

Director, Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD), Purdue University

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Co-Principal Investigator

Roberto Gallardo, PhD

VP for Engagement, Office of Engagement; and Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

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Co-Principal Investigator

Annie Cruz-Porter, PhD

Community and Regional Development Specialist, PCRD, Purdue University

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Co-Principal Investigator

Melinda Grismer, PhD

Community and Regional Development Specialist, PCRD, Purdue University

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Co-Principal Investigator

Andrey Zhalnin, PhD

GIS and Data Analyst, PCRD, Purdue University

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Team Member

Ben St. Germain

GIS Analyst, PCRD, Purdue University

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Team Member

Bertin Mbongo

GIS Analyst, PCRD, Purdue University

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Team Member

Tyler Wright

Lead Developer, PCRD, Purdue University

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Team Member

Ryan Maluchnik

Graphic Designer, PCRD, Purdue University

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Team Member

Hyewon Shin

Engagement Specialist, PCRD, Purdue University

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Team Member

Reneisha Rudder

Engagement and Evaluation Specialist, PCRD, Purdue University

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Team Member

Cheyanne Geideman

Extension Educator, Community Development, Purdue University

Team Member

Jessica Wandless

Communications and Engagement Manager, PCRD, Purdue University

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Research Assistant

Karen Ivanna Siller

Graduate Student, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

Research Assistant

Taoyi Sun, PhD Student

Graduate Student, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

Research Assistant

Rachel Zhang, PhD

Former graduate student, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University

Project Advisor

Mark C. White, PhD

Interim Assistant Dean and Program Leader, Extension; Clinical Associate Professor, Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Project Advisor

Christine Nolan

Regional Planning Expert, Former Senior Associate, PCRD, Purdue University

Our Partners

Organizations that support and enable this research.

U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA)

We acknowledge the funding support and guidance from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) for this project. As mentioned in the disclaimer, onus of errors or omissions lie with the project team.

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Lightcast, LLC

We acknowledge the data support and agreement provided by the Lightcast, LLC, for the data dashboards.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the geospatial file of economic development districts provided by the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO). We acknowledge the scholars and practitioners who interviewed with the project team and provided their valuable insights. PCRD sincerely thanks all the partners and participants who supported this project by providing resources, insights and expertise.

Disclaimer

This project is prepared by Purdue Center for Regional Development using Federal funds under award # ED23RNA0G0174 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.