Staff
Lavea Brachman, JD, MCP
Executive Director
As Executive DIrector of Greater Ohio and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Lavea Brachman has been the chief architect of and manages the Restoring Prosperity to Ohio Initiative as well as other related statewide initiatives, including ReBuild Ohio, a statewide vacant property redevelopment coalition. Since coming to the organization, Lavea has been instrumental in shaping the Greater Ohio’s organizational and strategic direction, as well as developing policy and programmatic areas of focus and strategic partnerships with other non-profit organizations and private sector leaders. She has also written a number of publications including co-authoring Greater Ohio’s recently released report, “Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy,” and the Brookings publication, “Ohio’s Cities at a Turning Point: Finding the Way Forward” on the plight and strengths of Ohio’s older industrial “shrinking cities.”
After practicing environmental law at a Washington, D.C. law firm, Lavea was a partner with a Cambridge, Massachusetts consulting firm advising Fortune 500 companies on brownfield redevelopment strategies. Since then, Lavea has dedicated her work to the non-profit and public sectors. While at the Department of Energy (DOE) during the Clinton Administration, she worked on redevelopment and community involvement strategies for decommissioned DOE sites. As director of Ohio work at the Chicago-based non-profit Delta Institute, Lavea worked with community leaders throughout the Midwest to promote local watershed and brownfield redevelopment projects.
Before returning to Ohio, Lavea was a Visiting Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and taught in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she developed and taught workshops and wrote about the role of community development organizations in brownfields development and neighborhood revitalization efforts. Lavea graduated from Harvard College and The University of Chicago Law School, and received a master’s in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alison D. Goebel, PhD
Associate Director
As Greater Ohio’s Associate Director, Alison develops and maintains relationships with local, state, and national officials and organizations. She conducts site-specific education and outreach projects around the state and manages new projects that advance Greater Ohio’s impact on place-based economic development issues.
Utilizing the information and feedback she gathers “in the field,” she and the Research Director work closely together to holistically inform and develop Greater Ohio’s research and policy agendas. Before joining the Greater Ohio staff, Alison worked as a consultant on select Greater Ohio research projects and assisted with grant writing. As Assoicate Director, Alison will continue assisting with grant writing.
Since 2005, Alison has periodically lived in Mansfield, Ohio conducting long term qualitative research on small city race and class relations. She has published popular and scholarly writing about contemporary small city social relationships and holds a PhD and M.A. in anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She received her B.A. from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). Prior to joining Greater Ohio, she worked in academic publishing and assisted with teaching and research at the University of Illinois.
Gene Krebs
Senior Director of Government Affairs and Policy
Gene Krebs has been with Greater Ohio since its inception in 2004 as a smart growth campaign. Gene is the primary point of contact with Ohio General Assembly members and outreach with statewide organizations as Senor Director of Government Affairs and Policy.
Gene spent three years on the Eaton City School Board, eight years in the Ohio House of Representatives, four years as Preble County Commissioner, and five years on the Preble County Planning Commission. While in the Ohio House, he chaired the Economic Development and Small Business Committee, and served on the Finance and Appropriation Committee and the Farmland Preservation Task Force. He saw ten of his bills and many amendments passed into law.
He has been published in the national media on farm policy and is a seventh generation farmer. Gene is on the board of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (by appointment of various Ohio Attorneys General) and the board of the Ohio Math and Science Coalition. He received the Watchdog of the Treasury Award in 1996, 1998, 2000 and received the Star Award from Miami University for outstanding volunteer work. In addition, he was the recipient of the Friend of the Taxpayer Award in 1997. He is a former inter-collegiate fencing coach and has published in a peer reviewed scientific journal on animal behavior.
Since leaving state political office, he has served on the Joint Committee on High Technology Start-up Business, Sales Tax Holiday Study Committee (Chair), and the Eminent Domain Task Force, all by legislative appointment. He was appointed by Governor Ted Strickland to serve on Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Task Force. Most recently he was appointed by Governor Kasich to the Local Government Innovation Council.
Meg Montgomery
Office Manager (part-time)
Meg Montgomery joined Greater Ohio Policy Center in February 2010. Her primary responsibilities are assisting in the day-to-day operations of the organization as well as managing the accounting and financial functions.
Prior to joining Greater Ohio, she was the Project Coordinator for a real estate development project in Panama City Beach, Florida. She also served as Office Administrator for a mid-sized law firm in Columbus for over a decade and managed all financial and operational areas of the firm. Her background encompasses the areas of law, real estate and accounting.
Erica Spaid
Research Director
As the Research Director, Erica Spaid guides Greater Ohio’s research agenda. Her work helps to identify areas where policy intervention is needed, evaluate the efficacy of various policy solutions, and put solid research to issues that may have previously only been understood intuitively.
Prior to becoming a full-time staff member, Erica consulted with Greater Ohio to evaluate the feasibility of increasing funding for transit in Ohio. As a part of this work, she evaluated the current state of transit funding and operations in the state, and helped Greater Ohio identify recommended funding levels and strategies for achieving additional funding. Prior to this, Erica worked at Strategic Economics in Berkeley, CA, where she specialized in urban and regional economics. Her work focused on the economic impact, financial feasibility, market potential, and neighborhood impacts of proposed policy and regulatory changes, transit projects, development projects, and economic development and revitalization strategies.
Erica is well versed in many forms of economic analysis including: demographic, economic base analysis, economic impact analysis, spatial analysis, projections and forecasting, market analysis, and financial feasibility analysis. Erica has also worked in Cleveland for Famicos Foundation, a non-profit community development corporation. While at Famicos, Erica managed the development of several affordable housing projects and was responsible for oversight of the property management department. Erica graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN and holds a Master in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.
Samantha Spergel, MPA
Research Associate
Samantha Spergel is the Research Associate for Greater Ohio. She holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Political Science and Urban Studies from The College of Wooster, and a Master’s of Public Affairs from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, with concentrations in Local Government Management and Economic Development.
As Greater Ohio’s Research Associate, Samantha conducts quantitative and qualitative analysis, and assists with project and methodological development of research projects. She also supports GO’s policy development efforts, and identifies and proposes research projects. Samantha also oversees GO’s blog, website and social media, coordinates GO’s communication plan and assists with grant writing. Prior to being Research Associate, Samantha was a Research Contractor, where she collected and analyzed indicators for the Building American Cities typology, including data on demographic and economic measures, land use policy and fiscal capacity of local governments.
Samantha has worked as a Grants Consultant for The Winter Sanctuary Shelter, in Mount Vernon, OH where she collaborated with area non-profits to survey various funding opportunities, researched and recommended centralized intake procedures, and examined various diversion practices. As a graduate student, Samantha co-produced a Downtown Assessment and Redevelopment Plan for the Town of Ferdinand IN, in coordination with her Master’s capstone project, which provided the town a guideline for physical improvements and stakeholder input. Samantha also has experience working in the public sector; she was the Community Development Intern for the City of Michigan City, IN Department of Planning, where she was responsible for conducting Environmental Reviews of CDBG and NSP I grant projects. She also specialized in writing contracts to sub-grantees and researching and interpreting HUD regulations to ensure compliance.