Network Contributors

Travis Green

Travis Green is a Program Associate at the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group (CSG). He leads communication and research efforts for CSG’s Rural Family Economic Success Action Network. Travis also co-leads the development of CSG’s WealthWorks tools that help rural communities pursue regional development that both strengthens sectors and improves livelihoods for low-income people, places and firms. Prior to CSG, Travis worked in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he coordinated the Divided Cities and Regions Symposium at UNC, an event focusing on community conflict in the process of community development. He also served as a research assistant for Building Integrated Communities, an immigrant inclusion project of the Institute for the Study of the Americas. Travis studied economic development and city and regional planning at UNC Chapel Hill and attended Haverford College in Philadelphia.

Email: travis.green@aspeninst.org
Phone: 202-736-5804

Jason Gray

Jason Gray is a research and strategic analysis consultant to nonprofits and philanthropy. He has 30 years of experience in a broad array of rural economic development research, practice, and policy that advances economic innovation, opportunity, and water resource protection for rural people and places.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Jason was director of the office of research and innovation at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. He oversaw the strategic development and implementation of nearly $9 million of economic innovation grants for reinvigorating North Carolina’s manufacturing sector, alternative energy development, and sustainable tourism. He also managed a vigorous research agenda that including analysis of community philanthropy, manufacturing policy, a supply chain analysis of North Carolina’s commercial fishing sector, and a comparative case study of marine shellfish aquaculture.

Prior to his tenure at the Rural Center, Jason was research and policy director at the Southern Rural Development Initiative and the Virginia Water Project.  His portfolio included policy education through the analysis of federal investments in rural America, rural community development philanthropy, and research on rural-urban connections. At the Virginia Water Project he was an early practitioner and advocate of rural focused  water management and protection policy at the state and federal level, with a particular focus on complex multiparty regulatory negotiations related to groundwater protection.

Email:jlgrayling919399@gmail.com