Dr. David Lewis (USA)

David Lewis, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Geography and Planning at the University at Albany, SUNY and Affiliated Faculty with the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy and the Lewis Mumford Center. He has extensive experience in regional economic development planning and implementation. An asset based, community driven participatory process has been at the center of his research, service, and teaching in this area. His most recent work, a national study of business incubation for the U.S. Department of Commence, Economic Development Administration, has been recently release. Other recent work includes an economic impact assessment on the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, through the collaboration of regional partnership that included over 30 organizations that participated in the training of corridor residents to collect visitor survey data. One of the most important goals of the project was to increase the community’s capacities to plan in the future by training residents and providing appropriate tools for communities to use. Another example of building the capacity of local communities is the web-based GIS application developed to support NYS communities conduct corridor management plans for proposed scenic byways is just one example (www.buildingyourscenicbyway.org). Lewis’s research has often been the basis innovative public policies at the local (Bridgeton, NJ), state level technology incubation policy in NJ, and national scale testifying the House of Representatives Small Business Committee in March 2010 and advising the Japanese Ministry of Trade, Economics, and Industry in 2003). Within the Albany Capital Regional Dr. Lewis has worked collaboratively with many of the Consortium’s partners to develop many of the plans referred throughout this document.