Biographical sketch

Carlene Hill, CEcD

Hill has twenty years of experience in economic development, across three states. She has an undergraduate degree in wildlife management from Oklahoma State University, where she worked as a laboratory technician in research related to control of ticks. Hill completed her MBA with honors at the W. Frank Barton School of Business, Wichita State University.

As a part of her graduate work in the Barton School, Hill crisscrossed the state of Kansas interviewing dozens of small and start-up businesses to document patterns of success and failure. Upon completion of her MBA, she began carrying out workforce related research, employed by the Center for Economic Development and Business Research. Hill then directed the Center for ten years during which time it grew into a highly recognized source of objective and insightful research and forecasting. Hill’s annual economic forecasts have been widely utilized and valued. She became a frequent and respected resource to Kansas legislators, City leaders, and the Wichita area economic developers, on a wide variety of policy issues related to economic development.

Following a family relocation to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Hill worked as a consultant for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, where she undertook special project work primarily related to demographic research and marketing.

Hill has carried out studies on the financial feasibility of Old Town in Wichita, Kansas and Campus Corner in Norman, Oklahoma. She served as project manager for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce in their research department where she led the design and completion of a interactive database profiling cities across Oklahoma.

In 2003 Hill became the economic development practitioner in Ada, Oklahoma, employed by the Ada Jobs Foundation. During her three years with the Ada Jobs Foundation, Hill was responsible for bringing two major new employers to the region in basic industries, representing over 500 new jobs and numerous other successes. Following her recruitment of IRT, a call center designed for 500 agents, Hill went to work full-time for IRT to help with employee recruitment and community relations.

During the past five years, Hill has completed her certification as an economic developer from IEDC, and her Certificate in GIS from Penn State University. Other recent formal education includes participation in a University of Pittsburgh PhD-level seminar on the Rhetoric of Science wherein Hill wrote a comprehensive report on the politics and rhetoric of global warming.