Highlight: EDA Establishes Office of Economic Development Integration (OEDI)

August 2016 Newsletter

EDA has been designated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the federal government’s official economic development integrator in recognition of both the agency’s successful management of cross-agency initiatives, and in recognition of the fact that it is the only federal agency whose sole mission is economic development.

The purpose of the Office of Economic Development Integration (OEDI) is to facilitate direct engagement between communities and multiple federal stakeholders to collaboratively solve complex economic issues. OEDI will connect communities to economic development opportunities across the federal government by serving as an internal resource to EDA regional staff who work with the agency’s clients on a regular basis.

By optimizing federal, state and local economic development assistance, EDIs will help EDA support highly impactful projects that generate innovative economies, sustained growth and broad-based prosperity across our communities. EDA integration staff will work with their federal peers and colleagues at other federal agencies to establish a network of practitioners that can provide more coordinated support to communities.

EDA has hired three dedicated headquarters staff and six staff members across its regional offices to provide grantees and other community stakeholders with better, more integrated, easily understood and actionable information on assistance available from all federal resources for economic development.

EDIs:

• Atlanta: Gloria Huang
• Austin: Rick Sebenoler
• Chicago: Greg Becker
• Denver: Justin Fazzari
• Philadelphia: Matt Suchodolski
• Seattle: Frances Sakaguchi
• EDA Headquarters:
• Doug Lynott (Director)
• Nancy Gilbert (Management and Program Analyst)
• Dixie Corbin (Program Analyst)

If you have questions about OEDI, please send a note to [email protected].