The Business Economics Insights

  Coming back to college after a nineteen-year hiatus has taught me far more than what appears in a syllabus. I did not return as an eighteen-year-old trying to determine what I wanted to become. I returned as a mother, entrepreneur, community professional, and business strategist with almost two decades of experience in entrepreneurship, business development, workforce development, and economic development. I came back because I wanted language, education, research, and credentials to deepen work I had already spent years doing. What I did not expect was for higher education itself to become one of my greatest case studies. Over the past year, I have learned something that now influences how I think about economics, community development, institutions, and the future work I want to do in regional and spatial planning: A system can technically exist for people without actually functioning well for the people it was created to serve. That distinction has changed the way I see almost...

  From Local to Global does not mean abandoning local. Let’s get that clear. I am a local-community kind of woman. I love spending money in my community. I love the storefronts, the restaurants, the little shops, the schools, the events, the people, the culture, the familiarity of knowing what’s around you and who is behind it. I genuinely believe strong local communities matter. But I also understand something professionally that not everybody sees the same way: Every local business does not have to stay limited to a local market. And that does not mean every mom-and-pop shop needs to become some giant corporation either. Some businesses are perfectly happy being neighborhood businesses. They serve their people, circulate dollars locally, create jobs, and build trust right where they are. There is value in that. But for the business owner or organization that wants longevity, larger market share, stronger revenue, more influence, more resilience, and a greater ability to reinvest ...

  Social workers, case workers, family-services professionals, community advocates, and human-services professionals often enter people’s lives at the exact moment when those people are under pressure, in crisis, grieving, displaced, struggling financially, raising children alone, navigating trauma, or simply trying to keep life from falling apart. That means the title carries weight. Yes, the professionals doing this work are human too. They have families, stress, bills, grief, burnout, personalities, and personal challenges of their own. But there is still a professional standard. When you accept responsibility for someone’s case, that person should not become an inconvenience, a number, a file on your desk, or someone you punish because you are frustrated with your own workload or life. Case management is stewardship. Behind every “case” is a household. Behind every household are children, elders, parents, caregivers, jobs, rent, food, transportation, health, education, safety, ...