Elisabeth Reynolds has been a researcher and consultant for over a decade in the field of urban and regional economic development and industrial competitiveness. Her work focuses on the geography of innovation, urban and regional economic growth and industrial policy. She has worked in particular on the theory and practice of industrial cluster development and advises several regional organizations in this area. Her recent work with the Brookings Institution on the federal role in regional industry clusters led to a reorientation by several federal departments and agencies toward regional strategies that support industry clusters. Before coming to MIT for her Ph.D., Liz was the Director of the City Advisory Practice at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a non-profit founded by Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, focused on job and business growth in older, industrial cities.
Her background also includes working as a policy analyst at the Institute for Research in Public Policy, a Canadian think tank, and as a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs in London.
Liz has an A.B. from Harvard in government and was the Harvard Fiske Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. She holds a MSc from the University of Montreal in economics and a Ph.D. from MIT in urban and regional studies.
