2024 MEDA Summer Conference

As the head of DCI’s research division, Robyn oversees all client research initiatives across our economic development, tourism and talent attraction service areas. Through customized qualitative and quantitative research studies, Robyn delivers insights that guide the most effective public relations, marketing and organizational strategies. Robyn brings more than 23 years of economic development, site selection and market research experience to this role and oversees all of DCI’s original thought leadership including Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing; Talent Wars; Capturing the Canadian Consumer; the State of Site Selection (in cooperation with the Site Selectors Guild) and the Meeting Room of the Future series (in cooperation with the International Association of Conference Centers). She earned a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Bachelors degree in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.

Lara Fritts is a certified economic developer with over 25 years of experience in economic development, community development and management. Her experience spans city and regional levels in both public and private sectors assisting companies to execute their location strategies or development projects while helping communities achieve their goals. She has an expertise in building economic development organizations for elected officials having started six public-private partnerships/departments.

Lara has an extensive career, having held positions in Wisconsin, Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, and Utah. Currently, she serves as the Division Director of the Frederick County Maryland Division of Economic Opportunity which oversees economic development as well as the Frederick County Workforce Services. Prior to her role in Frederick County – Lara was the only women leading a publicly traded micro-cap real estate company trading on the OTC Markets. There she stabilized the company by securing over $12M of affordable housing assets, reducing debt and teeing up the next acquisitions which would bring additional cash-flow to the company.

Her economic development experience is expansive, and a career highlight was serving as the Director of Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development (SLC DED) she was the architect of developing an economic development department where she oversaw three divisions – Business Development, the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake City Arts Council. In three years, she worked to bring more than 30 new companies to Salt Lake City including UPS, Amazon, Stadler Rail, and others totaling over 9,000 jobs and nearly a billion dollars in capital investment. With her team she helped to deploy over $44 million into an affordable housing strategy creating over 3500 units throughout the city.

Known as a community vitality champion she has strengths in economic recovery, affordable housing, strategic planning, tax credits and incentives, and organizational development. She is sought-after speaker and consultant on real estate, community revitalization, and economic development finance. Lara gives back to the economic development profession by volunteering, mentoring, and advocating economic development topics.

Lara holds a master’s degree in urban studies from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and a bachelor’s degree in regional analysis from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. She is the recipient of Consultant Connect’s Top 50 Economic Developers in 2019 and was named a Fellow Member of the International Economic Development Council in 2020 which honors economic development professionals for attaining unusual stature in their field and closely related disciplines

W. Ford Graham, IMBA, Esq. is a senior vice president on McGuireWoods Consulting’s national infrastructure & economic development team and a partner with McGuireWoods LLP.

Ford has a depth of experience working in the economic development sector where he has been one of the leading recruiters of international companies to the Southeastern United States. He has facilitated new industry and industrial expansion in over 132 projects, which have resulted in commitments of more than 13,000 new jobs and $38.9 billion in new investment. Ford’s practice focuses on companies opening or expanding operations in the U.S. In addition to economic incentives, Ford assists companies with the full spectrum of legal needs that arise when companies enter new markets.

Most recently, Ford was a partner at an international AmLaw 100 law firm, and he previously served as director of international strategy and trade for the South Carolina Department of Commerce. In that role, he directed all aspects of the agency’s international efforts, including South Carolina’s four international offices in Delhi, Munich, Shanghai, and Tokyo, uncovering foreign direct investment opportunities, and assisting South Carolina companies with exporting their products to the rest of the world. Before that, he worked as general counsel for a real estate development/investment firm and served as a judicial clerk in the 5th and 14th Judicial Circuits of South Carolina. Ford served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala.

Ford is an avid runner and has completed over 30 marathons/ultramarathons including multiple 50-mile races and a 100-mile race in Georgia.

Jeannette Goldsmith is Vice President of Strategic Development Group, where she specializes in site selection and incentive negotiations for clients worldwide. Jeannette’s background spans more than 25 years in site location consulting, incentive negotiations, and economic development consulting with Fluor, McCallum Sweeney and then with her own company, Goldsmith Strategy. Her experience includes a heavy focus on manufacturing (specifically, aerospace, automotive, advanced materials and chemicals).
Her most recent project announcements include Fortescue, Eastman, SABIC, Solvay, and Commercial Metals Company. In addition, Jeannette has conducted multiple projects for The Boeing Company, Nissan North America, and Alenia Aeronautica.

Most of Jeannette’s economic development assignments are focused on site identification and site evaluation. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of the site selection process in assisting communities identify and prepare appropriate and relevant sites for capital investment. Her clients include TVA, Duke Energy, Mississippi Power, the South Carolina Department of Commerce and North Carolina Railroad (NCRR). Jeannette achieved a Masters of Public Policy from Duke University where she was honored with the Graduate Student of the Year Award from the Terry Sandford School in 1995. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Smith College. Jeannette lives in Greenville, SC, with her husband, Andy, and their two golden doodles. She enjoys fly fishing, skeet shooting, and needlepointing.

Richard Griffin, AICP, CEcD is the Director of Economic Development for the City of Frederick.
In that role oversees four City Departments including the Department of Economic
Development, Downtown Parking Department, Frederick Municipal Airport, and Weinberg
Center for the Arts. Griffin is accredited economic developer and urban planner with over 30
years of experience.
During his 23-year tenure in Frederick he has overseen major City Projects including the design
and development of award-winning Carroll Creek Park, airport expansion, and parking garage
development along with coordinating complex development projects delivering jobs and tax
base in downtown and commercial corridors. He has worked with many businesses in Frederick
including AstraZeneca, Fort Detrick, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Stulz,
Wilcoxen, Precision For Medicine, and many small mom and pop shops, and minority and
women owned businesses.
Richard has experience working at the city, county, regional, and federal level in Maryland,
Virginia, North and South Carolina and Washington State. He served on the district staff of the
late US Representative James Clarke from the 11th District of NC. He is a US Army veteran
having served as a Cavalry border guard on the East German Border during the cold war and as
a commissioned Armor officer in the NC National Guard and Army Reserves.
Mr. Griffin holds degrees from Western Carolina University and Clemson University. He serves
on the Board of Directors for the Maryland Economic Development Association (MEDA), Fort
Detrick Alliance, the Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc, and others. He is Rotary Paul
Harris Fellow and volunteers as a scout leader and youth mountain bike race team coach. His
wife Lynne is a FCPS teacher and they live, work, and play in Downtown Frederick.

Alicia serves as director for site selection and incentives for Cresa. A part of the Cresa incentives team she works with a broad range of domestic and international companies and leverages her vast economic development experience to ensure clients are positioned for success.

Alicia has over 20 years of experience in incentives, real estate, site selection and economic development. Throughout her career, she has completed projects totaling over $4B in capital investment and created over 40,000 jobs. Key clients include Amazon.com, Hostess Brands, LLC, Merck Animal Health, The Coleman Company, Honeywell, Dairy Farmers of America and Garmin International.

Prior to joining Cresa, Alicia served in various leadership and economic development roles in Kansas and Texas. During her time in Kansas, Alicia was responsible for leading the business recruitment team. Under her leadership, the team received numerous honors and awards including back-to-back Area Development Magazine Gold Shovel Awards and the first ever Site Selection Magazine’s Governors Cup for the State of Kansas.

During her career Alicia has overseen the creation and implementation of multiple economic development project tracking platforms and marketing initiatives. In addition, she assisted with redrafting incentive programs to position the State in being more competitive and played a key role in drafting legislation for a new incentive program which positioned Kansas to win Panasonic, a $4B, 4,000 job EV battery plant.

Alicia was named as one of the Top 50 economic developers in nation by Consultant Connect in both 2016 & 2020.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kansas, is a graduate of Leadership Lawrence and the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.

Ms. Robertson-Slagle was appointed Director of Economic Development for Charles County, Maryland in Nov 2021. In this role, Ms. Robertson-Slagle directs all services and activities of the 10 person department including attracting increased capital investments and expanding and diversifying employment opportunities, agricultural development and marketing.

Ms. Robertson-Slagle is a results-oriented and strategic leader with over 25 years of extensive experience in planning, organizing and implementing economic development functions from conception to completion, including working with new and expanding businesses and cultivating relationships between the local business community, counties, and economic development agencies at the state, regional and federal level.

Prior to joining Charles County Government, Ms. Robertson-Slagle served fifteen years with the Calvert County, Maryland Department of Economic Development holding positions in both business retention and business development as well as serving as the Director of Economic Development from July 2017 – Oct 2021. Her previous economic development experience also includes serving as director of the Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) where she provided leadership in planning, coordinating and overseeing the development, delivery and reporting of all professional programs, activities and services for the Southern Maryland region and business development specialist with the Maryland Department of Commerce where she worked directly with local jurisdictions on business retention and expansion projects.

Ms. Robertson-Slagle currently serves on the Board and is the Co–Chair of the Maryland Economic Development Association (MEDA) Program Committee, is a founding board member of Southern Maryland Innovates initiative and is the current Chair of the Southern Maryland Regional Innovation Collaborative. She is Vice Chair of the Southern Maryland Economic Development Association (SMEDA) and is a board member of the Cedar Point Federal Credit Union Board of Directors and the University Systems of Maryland at Southern Maryland Board of Advisors.

Ms. Robertson-Slagle earned her Associate of Science Degree in Business Administration and Management Development from the College of Southern Maryland and Bachelors of Science Degree in Marketing from the Robert H. School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. She is a 2018 graduate of Leadership Maryland and a 2010 graduate of Leadership Southern Maryland and a 2021 graduate of the National Association of Counties (NACO) High Performance Leadership Academy.

Ms. Robertson-Slagle is a lifelong resident of Charles County and the proud mom of two children. She and her husband Jeff reside in La Plata, Maryland.

Professional Experience
Ron has had an extensive career in operations for consumer goods companies from startups to global giants. With his background in operations, coupled with Cresa’s foundation in real estate, Ron brings powerful solutions to a client’s supply chain, network, labor, freight, and real estate challenges.

Career Highlights
Ron has successfully grown several companies including:
• Fleming Foods – VP Logistics • Fossil – SVP Global Operations
• Bulova Watches – COO
• Victrola – COO

Education
Ron received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oklahoma

Personal Interests
Ron is an avid football fan and an amateur astronomer. Ron and his wife live in Dallas-Fort Worth and have two grown children and two grandchildren in the area.

Nicholette brings a unique international perspective to location strategy, having worked overseas for the South Carolina Department of Commerce. As a managing site selection consultant for Global Location Strategies, she leads site selection projects, manages our Europe office, and oversees international business development initiatives. Nicholette speaks conversational Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and holds dual bachelor’s degrees in marketing and management and an international MBA from Florida International University.

Ebony Stocks is the Executive Vice President with the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation, an organization that provides business services that help attract, retain, and expand businesses in the County. She previously administered the County’s premier $50 million economic development tool, the Economic Development Incentive Fund which leveraged over $1 billion in capital investment and created over 13,000 jobs. Ms. Stocks is a Certified Economic Development Finance professional who has managed several financing and incentive programs. Ms. Stocks has worked in commercial lending providing non-traditional financing to rapidly growing small businesses. Ms. Stocks has a Master’s degree in Real Estate Development and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics.