Bridget Jones  Ed.D.

Executive Director, Cumberland Region Tomorrow

Office Phone:  615.986.2699

bridget@cumberlandregiontomorrow.org

Dr. Bridget Jones is Executive Director of Cumberland Region Tomorrow, a non-profit citizen-based organization dedicated to planning for the future livability and economic vitality of a 10-county region in Middle Tennessee.  An economic and community development and higher education professional, she has lead major regional and community-level programs and projects in the middle Tennessee area.  Bridget's work has focused on effective use of collaborative effort and vision along with proactive project management strategies toward complex solutions to community and economic development problems.

Prior to joining CRT in mid-2003, she worked with the South Central Tennessee Development District, Columbia Main Street Corporation and Columbia State Community College in various executive and project leadership positions.

Bridget is a native Middle-Tennessean.  She holds degrees from the following universities: Memphis State University (B.B.A in Marketing/Transportation Logistics), 

Vanderbilt University ( M.Ed. in Human Resource Development) and

University of Louisville (Ed.D. in Educational Administration).   

Dr. Jones has completed numerous publications and presentations relating to her career experience and interests including the Cumberland Region Tomorrow Report to the Region....Continuing the Discussion released in October of 2003 and the CRT Quality Growth Toolbox in December of 2006.  She received the first William McCulley Award for Excellence in Research in November of 2001 from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission for her dissertation research entitled The Role of Tennessee Community Colleges in Economic Development.

Bridget is Past-Chair of Columbia Main Street Corporation, a founding member and Board member of Maury Vision 20-20, and a graduate of Leadership Maury and the Leadership Middle Tennessee Class of 2005 and serves on the Natchez Trace Parkway Association Board.  She is an active member of the Smart Growth America Coalition and was named to the Board of Directors of Smart Growth America in March of 2008.  Dr. Jones was appointed in February of 2005 by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to the Southern Growth Policy Board, Global Strategies Council, where she will represent Tennessee on rural economic and community development issues and opportunities.

Dave Keiser M.A. Economics                                   

Program Director, Cumberland Region Tomorrow

Office Phone:  615.986.2698

davek@cumberlandregiontomorrow.org

Dave Keiser is an economic development professional with eight years of experience in the United States and North Africa, who has presented new ideas and innovative concepts to diverse multicultural audiences with proven leadership in garnering support and mobilizing resources for projects that balance economic, environmental and social interests. He has a background in teaching, community development, economics, biology, philosophy and farming and is fluent in Moroccan Arabic. His interests include renewable energy, regional cluster economics, value-added agriculture, logistics, entrepreneurship, supply chain management, world politics and the global economy.

Prior to starting at CRT in the summer of 2007, Dave lead the citizens of Carroll County, Illinois in the creation of the Carroll County Economic Development Corporation and subsequently was hired as their first executive director.  During his term at the CCEDC, Dave lead the recruitment of one large manufacturer to the area while incorporating a local TIF district to maximize the development, directed the regional Entrepreneurs & Inventors Club, sat on the Northwest Regions Entrepreneurship Center's Advisory Board, administered the local Business Retention & Expansion Program and recruited a large wind farm developer to the county.  He is also a member of the International Economic Development Council.

Dave holds degrees from the following institutions:  M.A. in economics as a Peace Corps Fellow at Western Illinois University with an emphasis on community development through the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, B.A. in biology from Hastings College in Nebraska, and received his BEDC from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  He is currently in his second year at the Economic Development Institute of the University of Oklahoma.