Economics

Conference Speakers

• Jon DeVaney

  Jon DeVaney has served as the President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association since September of 2014, when the Association was established through the merger of four existing tree fruit industry organizations. In this capacity he oversees industry education and training, data collection and reporting, and state and local government relations activities for the state’s apple, pear, and cherry producers.

  Mr. DeVaney has an extensive background in agricultural policy and politics. Prior to the formation of the WSTFA, Jon was the Executive Director of the Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association from November of 2009. He previously served as a long-time staff member for former Congressman Doc Hastings, as Washington State Director of USDA Rural Development (2005-2009) and as Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at the Northwest Horticultural Council.

  He also serves on numerous boards and committees, including as a past Chairman of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, a member of the Agricultural and Seasonal Workforce Services Advisory Committee at the Washington Department of Employment Security, and on the Workers Compensation Advisory Committee at the Washington Department of Labor and Industries.  Jon currently serves as the Chairman of the Boards of the Yakima County Development Association, the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency, and the Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing.

  Jon has a B.A. from the University of Washington and an M.A. from Georgetown University, both in history.

  

• Dave Reich

  Dave Reich is the Executive Director and Chief Economist for the Washington Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC). The members of the ERFC are made up of eight legislators and three executive branch members. Each quarter, Dave and staff prepare an updated Washington economic and state revenue forecast for review and approval by the ERFC members and use by state government officials in budgeting and planning. Prior to joining the ERFC, Dave was Director and Chief Economist for the Office of Economic and Financial Analysis at King County. That group prepared the official economic and revenue projections used in the County’s budget process. Dave holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington.

  

• Wei Yen

  Dr. Wei Yen is a Senior Research Scientist at the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM).  His current research focus is health services with special interests in access to health care and health care workforce. Dr. Yen has extensive experience in using survey data and administrative data for his research. His prior professional experiences include the following (in reverse chronological order):

  • Senior Research Associate at the Washington State Institute for Public Policy conducting research on long-term outcomes of mental health services
  • Associate Director of the California Health Interview Survey at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
  • Executive Policy Analyst and Research Investigator during his first tenure at OFM working on health coverage research and the Washington State Population Survey
  • Research Associate at the Washington State University’s Social and Economic Sciences Research Center working on the longitudinal Family Income Study.

  Dr. Yen received his MA and PhD degrees in Sociology from Washington State University and his BA degree in English from Southwest University (China).

  

• Yurim Lee

  Dr. Yurim Lee serves as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Central Washington University, having earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research spans the fields of macroeconomics and international economics, with a primary focus on investigating the impact of self-employment on labor markets, business cycle dynamics, and policy reforms. Recently, Dr. Lee has diversified her research interests to include interdisciplinary studies such as financial readability and sentiment analysis.

  

• Claudia Wright

  Dr. Claudia Méndez Wright is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at CWU. Her professional experience includes working for the advertising and marketing industry as a qualitative consumer/UX researcher. Her publications and conference papers explore topics of consumer culture, qualitative research, migration, and gender. Her current research interests explore the cultural definitions of motherhood and the intersections of identities and migration.  She will be sharing findings from her research on Colombian immigrant mothers in the U.S.: "Mother, Migrant, Colombian: Experiences of Highly Qualified Migrant Women in the U.S. Labor Market."

  

• Santiago Pérez

  Santiago Pérez is an associate professor of economics at the University of California, Davis, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He specializes in economic history and applied microeconomics, with a focus on topics related to immigration and inequality. 

  

   

• Evgeniya Duzhak

  Evgeniya Duzhak is a Regional Policy Economist in the Economic Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Evgeniya joined the bank in 2015 as an Education Research Advisor where she conducted research related to economic education and evaluated education programs developed by the Economic Education group. Prior to joining the Fed, she was a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and on the faculty of the City University of New York’s Zicklin School of Business.

  Evgeniya has published her work in many academic journals and has presented at leading academic conferences.

  Evgeniya holds a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Novosibirsk State University in Russia, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kansas.

  

• Anneliese Vance-Sherman

  Anneliese Vance-Sherman is the Chief Labor Economist for the Washington State Employment Security Department. Prior to this role, she served as a regional economist for over 13 years, covering the local labor markets in Northwest Washington and the Seattle area. Anneliese works closely with economic and workforce development partners, the media, and others providing labor market intelligence to inform strategic decision-making.

  In addition to her work with the state, Anneliese serves on several boards and advisory groups including the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference, the Seattle Economics Council, and the Skagit Population Health Trust. She has also served on several educational advisory committees for Washington K-12 institutions, colleges, and universities.

  Prior to state service, Anneliese was a visiting fellow at the Border Policy Research Institute and instructor at the College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University.

  Anneliese has a Ph.D. in economic geography and a master’s degree in economics both from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

  

• Roslyn Moes

  Roslyn Moes has served as an international student advisor for the past 25 years, the last 17 of which have been at Central Washington University.  She is an expert at F-1 visa regulations, the type of visa required for foreign students to study in degree programs in the United States.  She has assisted hundreds of students throughout the years in navigating those regulations, including the process for working in the United States. If approved for work, it is also her responsibility to monitor F-1 students for up to three years after the completion of their degree.

• Amy McGuffin

  Amy McGuffin is the Chief Executive Officer of the local Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce. McGuffin has been with the chamber for 12 years overseeing the day-to-day operations of a 500+ business member organization with small and large businesses, leading regional institutions, diverse non-profits, and companies from a multitude of industry sectors throughout the region. With the help of her staff, the Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce’s purpose is to create a positive social impact in the lives of their members and the communities they serve. Their Chamber has two beliefs: the first is that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams. The second is that businesses can and should play a role in addressing societal challenges. The Chamber promotes tourism and coordinates economic development initiatives from one end of the county to the other.

  The Chamber also promotes business growth and development with a wide range of services and tools, from publications and web services to educational seminars and leadership development for a new generation of entrepreneurs. She has long embraced – and experienced – the notion that change is constant, and those who navigate through change the best often succeed. Not all changes turn out for the best, but she believes it’s always right to ask yourselves if there are new, different, and better ways to approach how you do things. Winston Churchill once said, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.