Praxis Strategy Group’s experience is grounded in more than 20 years of research, policy and practice in small to medium-sized metropolitan and urbanized rural areas. Working with communities and regions throughout the United States, Praxis has been at the forefront in creating innovative processes that move citizens to community oriented action. You can learn more about Praxis’s work be reviewing their Case Studies.

The Alliances primary near term goal is to engage Praxis in a regional economic development plan (the “Plan”) to help diversify and grow a strong, sustainable economy.  Engaging Praxis to complete the Plan will require a financial commitment from local businesses, government agencies and individuals. To learn more about how you can help, contact the Alliance here.

Praxis’s process for developing the plan will be to visit our community several times, to meet with community members and assess our region’s economic strengths. This hands-on market research will be coupled with available regional economic data to develop a clear, actionable plan.

Below are the bios for the primary team members that the Alliance intends to engage:

Dr. Delore Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, President & CEO of Praxis Strategy Group

Delore Zimmerman

Delore is a strategy consultant with twenty-five years of domestic and international experience working with local and regional economic development groups, companies and universities. He co-developed the High-Performance Community Initiative while a Senior Fellow at the Denver-based Center for the New West and has spearheaded its development and deployment for 10 years with regional development organizations, universities and business leaders to create innovation and technology-based economies.

Delore serves as the Director of the Coordinating Center for the Red River Valley Research Corridor, an initiative championed by U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan to build world-class research centers and to provide support to the region’s growing technology sector. He is also a board member of the National Network for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (N2TEC) Institute, a nationwide consortium of major research universities, Fortune 1500 corporations, and governments whose mission is to increase the level of innovation and technology commercialization in the United States.

Delore served as the lead consultant for the Business Development Workgroup of the Northern Great Plains Rural Development Commission, formed by the United States Congress in 1997 to develop a five-state regional strategy. He has worked in Wales, England and South Korea advising regional technology and development organizations and has worked with business groups from Russia in agricultural processing and construction to advise them on productivity and competitive strategies.

He has received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of North Dakota and a doctoral degree from the Pennsylvania State University where his work focused on the mobilization of territorial-based alliances for economic development.

Joel Kotkin

Senior Consultant, Praxis Strategy Group

Joel Kotkin

An internationally-recognized authority on global, economic, political and social trends, Joel Kotkin is the author of the critically acclaimed book, THE CITY: A GLOBAL HISTORY, published by Random House/Modern Library, with editions published in China, Spain, UK and the British Commonwealth, Japan and Korea.

His new book, THE NEXT HUNDRED MILLION: AMERICA IN 2050, was recently published by Penguin Publishing. The Book explores how the nation will evolve in the next four decades.

Kotkin is Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, California.  A highly respected speaker and futurist, he consults for many leading economic development organizations, private companies, regions and cities. Joel is also a Senior Fellow with the New America Foundation in Washington, DC; a Fellow with the Center for an Urban Future in New York City; and a Senior Consultant with Praxis Strategy Group.

Bill Watkins, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Economic Research and Forecasting, Cal Lutheran University

Bill Watkins

Bill Watkins joined California Lutheran University in June 2009 as the executive director of the new Center for Economic Research and Forecasting and as an associate professor of economics. He is also helping to launch CLU’s new Master of Science in Economics program, which focuses on forecasting and applied research.

Prior to coming to CLU, Watkins had served as the executive director of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Economic Forecast Project. In his nine-year tenure, he expanded the project’s publications and geographic scope and enhanced its reputation. Previously, he served as an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.

Watkins has been widely published in academic journals, traditional media and new media and is quoted regularly by news organizations throughout the world. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration-finance from California State University, Northridge, and a master’s and doctorate in economics from UCSB.

A first hand testimonial about Praxis

“In 1999, the Wenatchee Valley was facing record unemployment, a huge shift in our primary industry as thousands of acres of red delicious apples were being pulled out of the ground, and we were facing several closures of manufacturing plants.  Delore Zimmerman, through the Center for the New West at that time, was engaged to carry out the High Performance Community Strategy for our valley.  The timing was crucial and Delore’s style was perfect.  He approached our project with a base of knowledge and research he obtained before he arrived.  He engaged a cross section of our community in an open dialogue about what makes our community great.  He left us with a list of sixteen strategies that we are still working on a decade later.  We have made incredible strides in diversifying our economy and becoming more economically stable, and the work began before he left our community.  He continues to check in on us and he tells other communities about our successes.  I heartily recommend Delore for a community based process in which you desire results and a plan that won’t sit on a shelf, but will engage your community in the work that needs to get done to rebuild from within, based on your unique strengths and community assets.”

Allison Williams
Executive Services Director, City of Wenatchee