A Message of Welcome

From
IEA Executive Director
Jim Youngquist

Welcome to our website and the Institute for Economic Advancement (IEA) in the College of Business at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). The forerunner of IEA, the Industrial Research Extension Center was created by the Arkansas Legislature to serve the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission the forerunner of today’s Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) as its research and support arm in 1955. Today, IEA is Arkansas’s only statewide university public service and outreach economic development research unit, and our partnership with AEDC has never been stronger. As you will see in reviewing our website, we serve as our state’s official U.S. Census center and provide statewide economic forecast data. We are proud to be a U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA) University Center and to host the Center for Economic Development Education for professionals as well as for elected and public officials in Arkansas and throughout the mid-South. We at IEA and UALR are dedicated to the advancement of economic development opportunity for the State of Arkansas through research, technical assistance, educational training, and through the convening of public and private economic development organizations and interests. I encourage you to explore the website to see the wide variety of initiatives and programs that we have underway in community economic development, geographic information systems applications, workforce development, and regional assessment, strategies, and development. I hope that you will call on us whenever we can be of assistance to you.