Nalitra Thaiprasert joined Ball State’s Center for Economic and Community Development in June 2006 to work as a Research Economist for Building Better Communities. Nalitra earned her doctorate degree in International Development (development economics) from Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan in April 2006. She also earned her Master’s degree from the same university, and spent six years in Japan. Nalitra obtained her undergraduate degree in International Relations from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

Nalitra is originally from Chiangmai, a beautiful city in northern Thailand. Nalitra’s fields of interest include: Applied Macroeconomics, Structural Change, Economic Development in Developing Countries, Economic Development under Globalization, and Input-Output and CGE analyses.

Nalitra lives in Fort Wayne with her husband, who is a senior test engineer at United Technology Controls in Huntington. She enjoys playing with her two Chihuahua dogs, gardening in her backyard, reading the Economist, and traveling the world.

Nalitra’s responsibilities include:

• Conduct economic analysis requested by projects under BBC, ex. impact analysis (input- output analysis), cluster analysis, shift-share analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and statistical analysis.

• Provide technical assistance and analytical support to professional staff and project teams in the delivery of community-based development projects.

• Serve as technical advisor in the planning and implementation of community economic development projects

• Create written reports including the research process, the analysis and graphic representations of the date collected and the research results.

• Create County/Town Demographic and Economic Profiles and/or sector-specific profiles.

• Conduct Internet research, locate, retrieve, analyze and process relevant data sets.

• Create maps, graphics, presentations and other visual representations of data sets that support and communicate the projects conducted by BBC staff and associates.

• Develop and maintain specific databases in collaboration with BBC internal and external partners.

• Collaborate with university economist to support BBC staff in project       development and implementation.