Featured Leader: Randy Eberts

Founded 76 years ago by the man considered Kalamazoo's First Citizen, the W. E. Upjohn Unemployment Trustee Corporation has established itself internationally as an important think tank. Locally, it's increasingly looking like a Do Tank, thanks to Dr. Randy Eberts, who has had the reins for the past 15 years. Eberts, a Ph.D. economist who came to Kalamazoo by way of Northwestern and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, arrived with a resume dedicated to labor markets, regional economic development, productivity, public finance, job training, income distribution, infrastructure and, significantly, education.

As the Kalamazoo Promise made education something of "first among equals" in the Southwestern Michigan regional economic development mix, Eberts hardly galloped to the fore to take charge of initiatives linking education with economic development. Rather, he became a reluctant hero of sorts, leveraging knowledge and relationships to allow other leaders to focus on the big picture.

In a region in which there are no shortages of good causes and agendas, Eberts most persuasively proclaimed that "we need to be the education community," and the notion is beginning to stick.

Eberts not only has a supportive Board of Trustees made up of people with strong ties to education, but also has key staff who focus on education, notably Senior Economist Tim Bartik, who lives his economic theories on the Kalamazoo Board of Education. Bartik, with Senior Economist Susan Houseman, wrote "A Future of Good Jobs?", and their lessons dovetail nicely with the ongoing, clarifying work of Senior Economist George Erickcek, who's something of a rock star on the local business scene because he brings data to life. Behind the scenes on the education front, Sarah Klerk and Bridget Timmeney have made Eberts more than a one-man band, as they were instrumental in organizing PromiseNet, the national conference on Promise-like programs recently. Similarly, Michelle Miller-Adams, writing exclusively about the Kalamazoo Promise and doing research on its effects, has helped the Trustee Corporation, working since 1945 as the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, in its emerging leadership role.

Eberts' facilitative style involves asking two questions for every statement he utters, but increasingly his work is making a statement about the future of the greater Kalamazoo area.