Amy Glasmeier, B.A. ENSP, 1978

Amy Glasmeier

After graduating from high school a year early and working in an office job, Dr. Amy Glasmeier moved to Sonoma County in 1974 and entered the music program at Sonoma State College (SSC). A chance conversation with a politically active student led her to change majors and enter Sonoma's School of Environmental Studies and Planning, where she completed her bachelor's degree in 1978.

Dr. Glasmeier chose to pursue graduate-level training in economics, receiving her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in city and regional planning in 1985. Amy enthusiastically took a fixed-term teaching appointment at The Pennsylvania State University in the community development program. A year later she moved to the University of Texas's program in community and regional planning and taught there for five years. In 1991, Amy traveled to Washington, DC, to take a research post at the Aspen Institute where she studied and wrote about the development effects of economic globalization and the then pending North American Free Trade Agreement. In 1992, Amy accepted an appointment in the department of geography at Penn State, where she was promoted to professor in 1994. Based on her work on regional development, in 1996 Glasmeier was appointed the John D. Whisman Appalachian Scholar, and worked closely with the Appalachian Regional Commission - a federal agency responsible for economic development efforts. Glasmeier has led field courses and provided important legislative testimony on the problems of poverty in the region. Her research on Appalachia is widely cited in national and regional newspapers such as the New York Times and the Lexington Herald.

Glasmeier has published widely, including three books and more than 40 scholarly articles on regional development. Her soon-to-be published book, From Keeping Time to Keeping Pace, is an historical account of the development of the world watch industry. She currently works with the OECD, numerous federal agencies, and international development organizations in constructing policies to alleviate poverty and uneven economic opportunity, as well as in Appalachia's troubled communities.