First Tuesdays -- Double Trouble: Metro Areas Wracked by Housing and Job Shocks

Michael Belitzky is a policy analyst and federal liaison in the State of Florida Washington Office. He is responsible for education, early childhood, housing, workforce, urban development, and unemployment issues, advising the Executive Office of the Governor, Governor's Office of Policy and Budget, and other agencies. Belitzky is a liaison to Florida's congressional delegation, federal agencies, and governors' offices in Washington, D.C. Previously, he worked on the transition team for Governor-elect Charlie Crist and Lt. Governor-elect Jeff Kottkamp, advising the incoming administration on the operations of statewide agencies. 

Jeff Finkle is the president and CEO of the International Economic Development Council, the world's largest economic development membership organization. Earlier, he was the president of the Council for Urban Economic Development for 15 years. An expert on community revitalization, business development, and job creation, Finkle is a former deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he oversaw the Community Development Block Grant and Urban Development Action Grant programs. He has advised on economic development in China, Europe, Latin America, and Oceania.

Chris Hoene is the director of the Center for Research and Innovation at the National League of Cities (NLC). He oversees efforts to research and share innovative local practices and trends on such subjects as public finance, economic development, governance, housing, and sustainability. Hoene's areas of expertise include urban affairs, local and state public finance, federalism, and local government structure. A coauthor of NLC's annual City Fiscal Conditions report and other publications, he has been with NLC since 2001. He previously held positions with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Public Policy Institute of California.

Robert Lerman, an expert on how education, employment, and family structure work together to affect economic well-being, is the Urban Institute's first Institute fellow in labor and social policy. He directed its Labor and Social Policy Center from 1995 to 2003. His work on youth apprenticeships in the late 1980s encouraged the creation of national school-to-work programs. Lerman's current research includes youth transitions from school to career. He chaired the American University economics department from 1989 to 1995 and continues to be a professor of economics there.

Margery Austin Turner (moderator) is the Urban Institute's vice president for research. She analyzes residential location, racial and ethnic discrimination and its contribution to neighborhood segregation and inequality, and the role of housing policies in promoting residential mobility and location choice. She cowrote two national housing discrimination studies and is a coauthor of Public Housing and the Legacy of Segregation. Turner served as the deputy assistant secretary for research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 through 1996.