Audrey Snyder Welsh is the Executive Director of the Central Mountain Small Business Development Center (SBDC), serving Chaffee, Park, and Lake counties in rural Colorado. Her work focuses on strengthening rural economies while building opportunities and resources for entrepreneurs to thrive.

Prior to joining the SBDC, Audrey worked with the Northwest and Rocky Mountain USDA Regional Food Business Center, a six-state initiative focused on strengthening regional food economies and improving access to technical assistance, capital, and markets for farm and food businesses. That experience continues to shape her approach to economic development and her interest in how locally driven solutions can foster vibrant, resilient rural communities.

Through the SBDC, her work supports small business development, rural access to capital, food and agricultural systems, disaster resilience and recovery, and regional collaboration. She is particularly interested in creating the conditions for food and farm businesses to succeed by strengthening value chains, expanding market opportunities, and connecting producers and entrepreneurs to the resources and relationships needed to grow and adapt across the Central Mountain region of Colorado.

Audrey’s work recognizes that rural economic development is deeply interconnected with broader community challenges, including housing, childcare, infrastructure, workforce, and seasonality. She approaches these issues through cross-sector collaboration, bringing together businesses, local governments, nonprofits, institutions, and other partners to build practical solutions rooted in the needs and opportunities of rural communities.

Skyler Schuck is a Senior Economist in the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) and an alumni of CSU’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He is a lead on the Colorado Governor’s Quarterly Economic and Revenue Forecast, manages the budget portfolios for offices of elected officials, and is a technical expert in tax revenue forecasting and Colorado’s Tax Payer Bill of Rights (TABOR). With research interests in economic development, regional analysis, and public budgeting, Skyler strives to create effective programs and solutions for the people of Colorado through collaboration and evidence-based policy.

Dr. Landini is a research consultant with a joint position in the Social Impacts Lab in the University of Missouri Economics department, and the Division of Applied Social Sciences. His research focuses on geospatial analysis in regional economics. As a consultant with SIL, Austin’s research focuses on analysis of tobacco and e-cigarette and cannabis specialty retailer location, visit counts and sales data, along with the demographic and regional economic patterns associated to these store types. In the Division of Applied Social Sciences, Austin is involved in grant funded projects studying trends in perennial cover crop adoption, and on the local economic impact of renewable wind and solar energy installations. Recent publications also include work on spatial patterns in business count growth and on the relationship between demographic change and local public finance.

My work in the community and economic development field focuses on the intersection of housing markets, regulatory policy, and access to infrastructure. My academic research examines how marijuana legalization impacts home values and resale rates. Using advanced econometric techniques—including hedonic pricing models and discrete choice analysis—I have investigated how cash-intensive industries and regulatory shifts influence housing market behavior. More broadly, my research addresses gentrification, affordable housing, and the role of banking access in shaping neighborhood investment patterns and residential price dynamics.

In my professional capacity as a Data Scientist at T-Mobile, I contribute to national-scale initiatives with direct relevance to community development. One such effort is the Direct to Cell program, which leverages satellite connectivity to bring mobile coverage to rural and remote areas historically excluded from cellular infrastructure. This initiative holds significant implications for rural economic resilience, public safety, and digital inclusion, helping to close longstanding gaps in communication and access.

Across both domains, my work is unified by an interest in how policy, markets, and technological systems affect spatial inequality. I aim to provide data-driven insights that inform more inclusive and equitable development strategies, particularly in communities undergoing structural transformation.

Dr. Watson is currently a Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Idaho. He conducts research on regional economic development, natural resource policy, agricultural policy, and general applied economics. Dr. Watson has taught courses at the University of Idaho, Colorado State University, Washington State University, and the University of Cordoba in Spain.

Dr. Scott Shrake serves as the Assistant Vice President for Strategy in the Office of the President & Executive Director for the Institute for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business at Colorado State University. In his role as AVP Shrake helps operationalize the university Courageous Strategic Transformation with an emphasis on Impact, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. As the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Shrake promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, product development, and commercialization for students, faculty, and community members.