Core Team

Deborah Markley is Managing Director and Director of Research for the Center. She was a founding co-director of the RUPRI Center in 2001. Deb provides strategic oversight and management of the Center, and is responsible for building and strengthening the Center’s collaborative partnerships. In addition, she guides the Center’s research agenda - practice-driven research and evaluation of model entrepreneurship development systems and initiatives in rural places. Deb brings over 20 years of experience in field-based research in rural economic development. Deb works closely with Don to identify model entrepreneurship practices that could be developed into case studies that the Center can share with the field. Deb is also coordinating the Center’s new Research Team – a group of researchers who are actively engaged in designing and implementing a research agenda that will advance our understanding of the impacts of entrepreneurship development in rural America.

Don Macke is Director of Practitioner Programs and the Center’s Project Director for Home Town Competitiveness, a partnership between the Nebraska Community Foundation, the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development. Don was a founding co-director of the RUPRI Center in 2001. For 30 plus years, he has worked in the field of rural community economic development as a practitioner at the state, regional and local levels. Don’s role in the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship is to lead the Center’s efforts to support practitioners working in their landscapes to build entrepreneurship development systems and programs. Don manages the new National Practitioners Network which offers a wide range of assistance for those in the field. From one-on-one mentoring to training to strategic planning, Don’s mission is to help community economic developers build better strategies to energize their communities’ entrepreneurs.

Brian Dabson is Executive Vice President of RUPRI. Brian’s role is to lead the Center’s framing of Federal and state policy to embrace entrepreneurship as an effective rural economic development strategy and to raise the resources necessary to support the Center’s research, practice, and product development activities. Brian is also the main liaison between the Center and the RUPRI family of centers and programs. An important part of his job is to communicate through speaking and writing to a range of audiences, nationally and internationally, the importance and promise of entrepreneurship in sustaining and growing economies and communities.

Karen Dabson is Director of Program Development and Marketing for the Center. She joined the RUPRI Center in August 2005, with extensive experience in entrepreneurship and community development finance, both in the field and at the policy and grantor level. Her Center role is to lead program development efforts so that communities get what they need to become more entrepreneurial. That means shaping and marketing programs and initiatives that can have wide application for many communities based on the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s powerful Energizing Entrepreneurs (E²)platform. It involves working directly with communities, and learning about good practices for future model development, re-tooling Center products, and developing new initiatives. She also connects with a variety of community partners on local, regional, state and national levels to coordinate resources and to devise new strategies and policies for making rural communities and regions economically strong, and entrepreneurially driven. Karen is developing the Center’s new E² team – a group of highly skilled trainers and technical assistance providers who will help deliver E² products to communities around the nation.

Craig Schroeder is Senior Associate with the Center, focused on community-based business succession planning, youth entrepreneurship and Home Town Competitiveness. Craig’s recent work includes creation of the Youth Attraction Formula, a tool for Great Plains communities to address persistent population decline largely due to significant youth out-migration. Craig is providing leadership for the Center’s new EYE*DEAS Talent Search, an initiative to identify young entrepreneurs who have started businesses in rural places and the community-based programs that are designed to energize young entrepreneurs across rural America. Craig is a great resource for practitioners and community leaders who are interested in working to engage young people in both leadership and entrepreneurship.

Erik Pages is Senior Fellow with the Center and the Founder and President of EntreWorks Consulting, an economic development consulting and policy development firm focused on helping communities and organizations achieve their entrepreneurial potential (www.entreworks.net). Erik is a nationally recognized expert in economic and entrepreneurship development policy, particularly at the state level. He has partnered with the Center on research and evaluation projects and the Center’s state policy academies.

Richard Gardner is Senior Fellow with the Center and the principal consultant for Bootstrap Solutions in Boise, Idaho, a firm specializing in rural development, economics, strategic planning, and group facilitation. Dick was the founding director for the Idaho Rural Partnership, facilitating more than fifty multi-partner collaborations on rural issues. He was also a policy economist in the budget office of the Idaho governor, working closely with the Idaho Legislature on agricultural, natural resource, rural development, and tax issues. Dick is an experienced trainer with the Center�s Energizing Entrepreneurship program and with HomeTown Competitiveness, and he works on the Center�s transfer of wealth studies.

Don Betts is Senior Fellow with the Center and serves as the program director for the Georgia Centers of Innovation program, which includes multiple state government and university system partners. Each center supports the growth of an existing strategic industry cluster by fostering joint industry-university applied research, providing incubation services to technology start-up companies, and providing entrepreneurial training and outreach to its region. Don’s passion is helping communities discover and implement appropriate strategies to energize and assist local entrepreneurs, especially technology entrepreneurs. He has hands on experience in local communities as well as leading numerous workshops and conferences in North and South America. Don developed Georgia’s successful “Entrepreneur Friendly Community” program and trained the state’s economic development agency which now has helped over 48 communities obtain the certification. Previously, he managed the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s enterprise development efforts, comprising the ENet program, the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center, and the Georgia Minority Business Development Center. Respectively, these help communities develop and implement strategies for encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs, assist firms statewide in obtaining government contracts, and provide business and technical assistance to minority entrepreneurs in Georgia.

Steve Buttress's 45 year career has provided him with a perspective that very few economic or community developers can claim. He’s been responsible for developing and leading efforts at all levels. He was the first President of Enterprise Florida, the public/private partnership created to transform a low-wage state into a high wage economy by: assisting entrepreneurs in accessing technology from the state’s research institutions; creating venture capital networks to fund those businesses; and training the workers needed to drive a high tech economy. He was the Director of Nebraska’s Department of Economic Development where he led efforts to redirect the state’s resources toward building development capacity at the local level. He was responsible for the development of the University of Oklahoma’s Research Park, an effort to create new jobs by commercializing the research output of the university. And he’s worked at the local level, directing development corporations in Butte and Great Falls Montana and Kearney, Nebraska. It’s at that local level where the rubber meets the road and where the effectiveness of economic development programs is proven. He has been that lone developer, sitting at a desk in a community which looks to him for guidance and direction. He knows what that responsibility feels like, and how important it is to use the limited resources available to produce measurable results in a limited time frame.

"That’s why Steve has joined forces with the e2 team. Steve knows what works. He can speak from experience to help your community identify its best opportunities. And he can help convince community leaders that energizing entrepreneurs is a winning development strategy.

Taina Radenslaben is Manager of Operations for the Center. Taina manages the electronic communication for the Center and maintains our website, www.energizingentrepreneurs.org. In addition to assisting with our training and outreach activities, Taina provides valuable assistance in connecting practitioners, community leaders, researchers and policymakers with the resources of the Center.

Lisa Bauer is the Editor of the Center’s E of the Month series. Lisa brings life to stories of rural entrepreneurs, rural entrepreneurship practitioners and organizations, and entrepreneurial rural communities. These stories are widely used to demonstrate the promise and potential of entrepreneurship in rural America.


About the Center Core Team HTC Team E2 Team Research Team Prospectus Advisory Group E of the Month Rural E News Library Center Research and Policy Reports E Stories Tools for Practitioners External Research Useful Resources Youth Resources Book Club Energizing Entrepreneurs Conference Proceedings Upcoming Trainings New Releases Energizing Young Entrepreneurs e² Energizing Entrepreneurs Partners - RRDCs Transfer of Wealth Analysis	Core Team Deborah Markley is Managing Director and Director of Research for the Center. She was a founding co-director of the RUPRI Center in 2001. Deb provides strategic oversight and management of the Center, and is responsible for building and strengthening the Center’s collaborative partnerships. In addition, she guides the Center’s research agenda - practice-driven research and evaluation of model entrepreneurship development systems and initiatives in rural places. Deb brings over 20 years of experience in field-based research in rural economic development. Deb works closely with Don to identify model entrepreneurship practices that could be developed into case studies that the Center can share with the field. Deb is also coordinating the Center’s *new* Research Team – a group of researchers who are actively engaged in designing and implementing a research agenda that will advance our understanding of the impacts of entrepreneurship development in rural America. Don Macke is Director of Practitioner Programs and the Center’s Project Director for Home Town Competitiveness, a partnership between the Nebraska Community Foundation, the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development. Don was a founding co-director of the RUPRI Center in 2001. For 30 plus years, he has worked in the field of rural community economic development as a practitioner at the state, regional and local levels. Don’s role in the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship is to lead the Center’s efforts to support practitioners working in their landscapes to build entrepreneurship development systems and programs. Don manages the *new* National Practitioners Network which offers a wide range of assistance for those in the field. From one-on-one mentoring to training to strategic planning, Don’s mission is to help community economic developers build better strategies to energize their communities’ entrepreneurs. Brian Dabson is Executive Vice President of RUPRI. Brian’s role is to lead the Center’s framing of Federal and state policy to embrace entrepreneurship as an effective rural economic development strategy and to raise the resources necessary to support the Center’s research, practice, and product development activities. Brian is also the main liaison between the Center and the RUPRI family of centers and programs. An important part of his job is to communicate through speaking and writing to a range of audiences, nationally and internationally, the importance and promise of entrepreneurship in sustaining and growing economies and communities. Karen Dabson is Director of Program Development and Marketing for the Center. She joined the RUPRI Center in August 2005, with extensive experience in entrepreneurship and community development finance, both in the field and at the policy and grantor level. Her Center role is to lead program development efforts so that communities get what they need to become more entrepreneurial. That means shaping and marketing programs and initiatives that can have wide application for many communities based on the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s powerful *Energizing Entrepreneurs (E²)platform. It involves working directly with communities, and learning about good practices for future model development, re-tooling Center products, and developing new initiatives. She also connects with a variety of community partners on local, regional, state and national levels to coordinate resources and to devise new strategies and policies for making rural communities and regions economically strong, and entrepreneurially driven. Karen is developing the Center’s new* E² team – a group of highly skilled trainers and technical assistance providers who will help deliver E² products to communities around the nation. Craig Schroeder is Senior Associate with the Center, focused on community-based business succession planning, youth entrepreneurship and Home Town Competitiveness. Craig’s recent work includes creation of the Youth Attraction Formula, a tool for Great Plains communities to address persistent population decline largely due to significant youth out-migration. Craig is providing leadership for the Center’s *new* *EYEDEAS Talent Search, an initiative to identify young entrepreneurs who have started businesses in rural places and the community-based programs that are designed to energize young entrepreneurs across rural America. Craig is a great resource for practitioners and community leaders who are interested in working to engage young people in both leadership and entrepreneurship. Erik Pages is Senior Fellow with the Center and the Founder and President of EntreWorks Consulting, an economic development consulting and policy development firm focused on helping communities and organizations achieve their entrepreneurial potential (www.entreworks.net). Erik is a nationally recognized expert in economic and entrepreneurship development policy, particularly at the state level. He has partnered with the Center on research and evaluation projects and the Center’s state policy academies. Richard Gardner is Senior Fellow with the Center and the principal consultant for Bootstrap Solutions in Boise, Idaho, a firm specializing in rural development, economics, strategic planning, and group facilitation. Dick was the founding director for the Idaho Rural Partnership, facilitating more than fifty multi-partner collaborations on rural issues. He was also a policy economist in the budget office of the Idaho governor, working closely with the Idaho Legislature on agricultural, natural resource, rural development, and tax issues. Dick is an experienced trainer with the Center�s Energizing Entrepreneurship program and with HomeTown Competitiveness, and he works on the Center�s transfer of wealth studies. Don Betts is Senior Fellow with the Center and serves as the program director for the Georgia Centers of Innovation program, which includes multiple state government and university system partners. Each center supports the growth of an existing strategic industry cluster by fostering joint industry-university applied research, providing incubation services to technology start-up companies, and providing entrepreneurial training and outreach to its region. Don’s passion is helping communities discover and implement appropriate strategies to energize and assist local entrepreneurs, especially technology entrepreneurs. He has hands on experience in local communities as well as leading numerous workshops and conferences in North and South America. Don developed Georgia’s successful “Entrepreneur Friendly Community” program and trained the state’s economic development agency which now has helped over 48 communities obtain the certification. Previously, he managed the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s enterprise development efforts, comprising the ENet program, the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center, and the Georgia Minority Business Development Center. Respectively, these help communities develop and implement strategies for encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs, assist firms statewide in obtaining government contracts, and provide business and technical assistance to minority entrepreneurs in Georgia. Steve Buttress's 45 year career has provided him with a perspective that very few economic or community developers can claim. He’s been responsible for developing and leading efforts at all levels. He was the first President of Enterprise Florida, the public/private partnership created to transform a low-wage state into a high wage economy by: assisting entrepreneurs in accessing technology from the state’s research institutions; creating venture capital networks to fund those businesses; and training the workers needed to drive a high tech economy. He was the Director of Nebraska’s Department of Economic Development where he led efforts to redirect the state’s resources toward building development capacity at the local level. He was responsible for the development of the University of Oklahoma’s Research Park, an effort to create new jobs by commercializing the research output of the university. And he’s worked at the local level, directing development corporations in Butte and Great Falls Montana and Kearney, Nebraska. It’s at that local level where the rubber meets the road and where the effectiveness of economic development programs is proven. He has been that lone developer, sitting at a desk in a community which looks to him for guidance and direction. He knows what that responsibility feels like, and how important it is to use the limited resources available to produce measurable results in a limited time frame. "That’s why Steve has joined forces with the e2 team. Steve knows what works. He can speak from experience to help your community identify its best opportunities. And he can help convince community leaders that energizing entrepreneurs is a winning development strategy. Taina Radenslaben is Manager of Operations for the Center. Taina manages the electronic communication for the Center and maintains our website, www.energizingentrepreneurs.org. In addition to assisting with our training and outreach activities, Taina provides valuable assistance in connecting practitioners, community leaders, researchers and policymakers with the resources of the Center. Lisa Bauer is the Editor of the Center’s E of the Month** series. Lisa brings life to stories of rural entrepreneurs, rural entrepreneurship practitioners and organizations, and entrepreneurial rural communities. These stories are widely used to demonstrate the promise and potential of entrepreneurship in rural America.

Core Team

The RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship