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Staff

Michael T. Childress
 Executive Director

Michael T. Childress is the executive director of the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center, a state government agency created by the General Assembly in 1992 to bring a future-oriented perspective to decisionmaking in the Commonwealth. The work of the Center includes research, policy analysis, communications with all branches of government, and public outreach. Mr. Childress received his B.A. from the University of Kentucky in 1984 and an M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1986—both in political science. From 1988 to 1993, he was an analyst at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. While at RAND, he authored numerous studies on topics ranging from demographic trends in the third world to the implications of declining budgets for the U.S. Army. In August of 1993, he became the first executive director of the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center. Mr. Childress oversees the Center's numerous research activities and has authored reports on the future of tobacco, entrepreneurism, child care, technology use, electronic commerce, state and local taxation, immigration, health, and transportation.

 

Billie S. Dunavent
Senior Research Assistant and Webmaster

Billie Sebastian Dunavent is a Senior Research Assistant and Webmaster with the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center. She holds a B.A. from the University of Kentucky. From 1988 to 1993, Ms. Dunavent worked with the Legislative Research Commission and the Long-Term Policy Development Subcommittee, which designed the concept of the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center. In her post with the Center, she has authored and contributed to numerous reports and articles and has been co-editor of Foresight. Ms. Dunavent now serves as the Center’s webmaster, scanning project and Horizon coordinator and writer, and general office manager, and with Mark Schirmer has produced the lion’s share of the Center’s CD-ROM projects. She is an avid horsewoman who breeds and shows Arabians with her husband Rick.

 

Suzanne King
Staff Assistant

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Suzanne King has assumed a wide range of roles since joining the Center as a Staff Assistant in 2001. An experienced executive secretary and entrepreneur, Suzanne has served on the General Assembly staff; as Executive Secretary to the Kentucky Assistive Technology Network, a division of the Department for the Blind and for the Kentucky Developmental Disabilities Council; and as a business owner and general contractor. At the Center, Suzanne assumes responsibility for design work and all layout and acts as a liaison to printers; manages the logistics of the Center’s highly successful annual conference, as well as other Center-sponsored forums and meetings; assumes responsibility for creating and disseminating public records of meetings; and manages the Center’s library and requests for information and publications. Her daughter is Marion Anna Moore.

 

Mark Schirmer
Policy Analyst

Mark Schirmer is a Policy Analyst with the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center. He received a Bachelor’s degree in communication studies at the University of Kentucky, where he focused on interpersonal dynamics. Since graduation, Mark has done a bit of freelance comic book writing, currently developing several projects of his own as free time allows. He works on the Center’s CD-ROM projects, handles videography, assists with the web page, and takes care of whatever odd jobs come his way. Mark lives in Lexington.

 

Michal Smith-Mello
Senior Policy Analyst

Michal Smith-Mello is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center. In that capacity, she was principal author of the Center’s 1994 biennial trends report, The Context of Change, as well as reports on rural development, workforce development, and, with Michael Childress, on entrepreneurship. She created the Center’s quarterly publication, Foresight, and continues as an editor. Ms. Smith-Mello has written or edited numerous articles, reports, and publications. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, she has a B.A. and an M.A.

 

Amy L. Watts
Policy Analyst

Amy Watts is a Policy Analyst with the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center. In this capacity, she provides statistical data analysis using a variety of methods and models. She has authored and coauthored publications covering a range of topics from the future of postsecondary education to health care coverage, the aging population, and regional economic growth, among others. Her professional activities include past adjunct teaching positions at local universities, including the Martin School of Public Policy at the University of Kentucky (UK), and service as Secretary of the Board for the Kentucky Economics Association (2004-2007). She holds a B.A. in economics from UK. In 2001, she received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of New Mexico with concentrations in econometrics and environmental and natural resource economics.