Brian Dabson
Rural policy analyst & researcher
Brian Dabson researches and writes on rural and regional economic and community development, regional collaboration and rural-urban connections.
He lives in Durham, North Carolina. Until recently, he consulted with the Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group and was Research Fellow with the School of Government, University of North Carolina.
Before moving to North Carolina in 2016, he was Associate Dean, Research Professor, and Director of the Institute of Public Policy at the University of Missouri’s Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs. Previous positions include President of the Rural Policy Research Institute and President of CFED (now Prosperity Now).
He served as board chair of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, member of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Community Development Advisory Council, member of the national steering committee of the National Rural Assembly, and president of the Social Innovations Forum at the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).
Prior to coming to the United States in 1992, he was director of the Center for Employment Initiatives (CEI) a UK-based research and technical assistance nonprofit that worked across Europe on community and economic development programs, and before that he held a number of local government planning and economic development positions in Liverpool and Glasgow.
He served as board chair of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, member of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Community Development Advisory Council, member of the national steering committee of the National Rural Assembly, and president of the Social Innovations Forum at the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).
Prior to coming to the United States in 1992, he was director of the Center for Employment Initiatives (CEI) a UK-based research and technical assistance nonprofit that worked across Europe on community and economic development programs, and before that he held a number of local government planning and economic development positions in Liverpool and Glasgow.
