About CREC

The Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) is an independent, not-for-profit organization founded to provide policy-makers from around the world with the information and technical assistance they need to formulate and execute innovative, regional, job-creating economic strategies.

Our staff members come from around the globe, bringing with them diverse backgrounds, and world-class skill sets.

CREC staff

Martin Romitti
Senior Vice President for Research and Technical Assistance

mromitti@crec.net
703-504-2874

Dr. Martin (Marty) Romitti serves as Senior Vice President at the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC). Dr. Romitti has over 20 years of professional experience helping federal, state, regional and local organizations and leaders to research, formulate, and execute on strategies that promote effective public policy, job creation and long-term economic sustainability. As a recognized leader on complex projects, training, facilitation and for innovative research design, he has led dozens of studies, technical assistance efforts and earned multiple national awards for excellence. Among his focus areas, Dr. Romitti conducts program evaluations on national, state, regional and local efforts to spur economic and job growth including the use of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to measure outcomes and determine effective levers for future action.

Recent project work includes enhancing state and local economic development organization engagement to support investment priorities for the US Economic Development Administration; examining the effectiveness of the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 50-year involvement in the 13-state region it serves; evaluating the benefits from DoD’s Office of Economic Adjustment-Defense Industry Adjustment awards; outcomes in the areas of lending and venture capital for the US Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative; reports on manufacturing opportunities for the NIST- Manufacturing Extension Partnership program; and developing best practices for the use of business incentives in partnership with the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Romitti also performs economic impact and ROI assessments on the effects from proposed policies and economic development assets; identifying supply chain opportunities for businesses including eastern Wisconsin, northwest Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, and Texas; customized assessments of changing business conditions and workforce needs, particularly Future of Work trends; and monitoring larger demographic and socioeconomic trends to further data-driven planning. Additionally, Dr. Romitti conducts extensive research on high-growth companies, provides support to the network of CREC affiliated national membership organizations, including the Labor Market Information Institute, Projections Managing Partnership, University Economic Development Association, Development Districts Association of Appalachia, and State Economic Development Executives Network, and coordinates the development and implementation of training curriculum on economic methods and planning practices.

Before joining CREC, Dr. Romitti served as the Director of Economic and Public Policy Research at the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute, a unit of the UMass President’s Office, where he provided New England public, private, and non-profit leaders with analyses of trends, economic impacts, targeted industries, labor market issues, economic development efforts, and policy initiatives. Dr. Romitti was the Managing Editor of MassBenchmarks, an economic journal published by the university in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He also headed the Massachusetts State Data Center.

Prior to his time at UMass, Dr. Romitti worked extensively in the legislative and executive branches of state government, including founding and directing the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center for 12 years. At MERIC, he led a 40-person organization providing research and producing studies on the Missouri economy. That research included economic condition reports, economic impact assessments, and Labor Market Information produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor. The center also performed business intelligence and marketing functions for the state’s economic development department as well as evaluated program and tax expenditure performance, assisted in determining areas of greatest distress and need for qualifying purposes, and supported the policymaking efforts of state agencies.

Dr. Romitti chaired the national Labor Market Information Training Institute from 2008 to 2012 and served on the Board of Directors for the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). He also served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College in Columbia, MO, teaching a master’s level course on Research Design in both the classroom and on-line settings.

Dr. Romitti holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science with emphases on public policy analysis and political economy from the University of Missouri, a Master in Public Administration from the University of Idaho, and a bachelor’s degree in Government from Truman State University in Kirksville, MO.

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