Ben Hunkler
Ben comes to ORVI from community advocacy work in the Ohio River Valley. He offers communications and design support for report releases, social media content, and the ORVI Insider.
Mark Partridge, Ph.D.
Mark Partridge is the Swank Chair of Rural-Urban Policy at Ohio State University and is affiliated with GSSI in Italy and Jinan University in China. He served twelve years as Co-Editor of the Journal of Regional Science, is Co-editor of Springer Briefs in Regional Science, and serves on a dozen other editorial boards. He has […]
Deirdre Lally
Deirdre Lally centers community empowerment as a means to healthier systems. She graduated from UMass Boston with a B.A. in Community Studies & Labor, and her work has focused on the impacts of fracking and mining in rural Pennsylvania – where she grew up. She recently worked with a regional food hub on local foods as […]
Kathy Hipple
Kathy is a professor of finance with Bard College’s MBA in Sustainability program and a former financial analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Nick Messenger, Ph.D.
Nick Messenger conducts applied microeconomic and econometric research into local economic development strategies, tax and industrial policy, and energy economics. He specializes in geographic and econometric modeling with large datasets to statistically evaluate the real impacts of policy changes on community prosperity. Nick earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics from The Ohio […]
Tom Torres
Tom Torres is an organizer and nonprofit professional with a strong commitment to popular education and movement building. Originally from Northeast Georgia, Tom’s work has spanned a number of rural communities, including the Deep South and Appalachia, and has focused on regional economic development, fighting climate change, and providing people with the tools and resources […]
Eric Dixon
Eric focuses on economic and environmental policy in Appalachia and beyond. Prior to joining ORVI, Eric was an organizer and policy advocate at Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, where he worked on issues such as black lung and damage from abandoned coal mines.
Sean O’Leary
Sean O’Leary, senior researcher, energy and petrochemicals, has studied and written about coal, natural gas, and their role in the economies of Appalachia since the beginning of the fracking boom. He is the author of “The State of My State” blog and newspaper column, which ran in the Martinsburg (WV) Journal between 2010 and 2014. […]
Joanne Kilgour
Joanne Kilgour, Esq. is a Pennsylvania-based environmental lawyer and nonprofit professional with a passion for justice and democracy. Joanne most recently served as the Director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, where she stewarded the organization’s statewide operations and managed its lobbying and political program. Before joining the Sierra Club, Joanne had the opportunity to […]
Ted Boettner
Ted uses sound research and analysis to advance shared prosperity through people, projects, and policy. His current areas of work include oil and gas issues, fiscal policy, energy economics, and economic development. Prior to joining ORVI, he was the founding executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. Over the last 20 […]