Visioning Kentucky’s Future:
Measures and Milestones 2008

November 20, 2008

Northern Kentucky Convention Center
Covington, Kentucky

2008 Conference Wrap-Up

Presentations

Click on a speaker’s name for a PDF version of their presentation for follow-up information.

Audio from the breakout sessions has been edited for time and clarity from available materials.

(NOTE: If you have trouble playing the mp3s online, right-click the “DOWNLOAD” link,
select “Save as,” and save the file to your computer.)

AGING: Boomers Defying Conventional Wisdom Even in Tough Times (DOWNLOAD)
Read the Conference Brief summarizing this panel discussion.

• Dr. Graham Rowles, Professor of Gerontology, Graduate Center for Gerontology, University of Kentucky
• Michal Smith-Mello, Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center

ENERGY-ENVIRONMENT: Fueling the Future in a Carbon-Averse Environment (DOWNLOAD)
Read the Conference Brief summarizing this panel discussion.

• Don Challman, Associate Director and General Manager, University of Kentucky, Center for Applied Energy Research
• Susan Lambert, R. E. Strategies, LLC
• Mark Schirmer, Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center

ECONOMY: Strategies for Energizing Kentucky’s Lagging Economic Progress (DOWNLOAD)

• John Chowning, Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center Board Member
• Deborah Clayton, Commissioner, Department of Commercialization and Innovation, Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development
• Dr. Kenneth Troske, Sturgill Endowed Professor of Economics, Director of the Center for Business and Economics Research, University of Kentucky

• Dr. Richard Crofts, Interim President, Council on Postsecondary Education
• Dr. Betty Griffin, Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center Board Member
• Dr. Joe McCormick, Executive Director, Kentucky College Access Network
• Frank Rasche, Policy Advisor and Legislative Liaison, Kentucky Department of Education

FISCAL CHALLENGES: Responding to Tough Times at the State and Local Level (DOWNLOAD)

• Greg Harkenrider, Deputy Executive Director for Financial Analysis, Office of State Budget Director
• Temple Juett, General Counsel, Kentucky League of Cities
• Rep. Adam Koenig, KY General Assembly and Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center Board Member
• Dr. David Wildasin, Endowed Professor of Public Finance and Professor of Economics, University of Kentucky

HEALTH CARE: Getting Healthy or Paying for the Consequences (DOWNLOAD)
Read the Conference Brief summarizing this panel discussion.

• Dr. Forrest Calico, Senior Advisor for Quality, National Rural Health Association (Moderator)
• Dr. Shawn D. Glisson, Founder and CEO, American Cancer Repository, Inc.
• David Hoke, former Principal, The Good Health Company
• Dr. Emery A. Wilson, Director of the Office of Health Research and Development and Dean Emeritus of the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Medicine

MIDDLE CLASS SQUEEZE: American Dream Becoming More Elusive (DOWNLOAD)
Read the Conference Brief summarizing this panel discussion.

• Dr. Terry Brooks, Executive Director, Kentucky Youth Advocates
• Ron Crouch, Kentucky State Data Center, University of Louisville
  Handouts
• Rep. Reginald Meeks,  KY General Assembly and Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center Board Member

TRANSPORTATION: Rethinking Old Assumptions to Build a Sustainable Future (DOWNLOAD)

• Don Hartman, Administration, Kentucky Transportation Center, University of Kentucky
• Dr. Lenahan O’Connell, Kentucky Transportation Center, University of Kentucky

Lunch and Hellard Award Presentation
Al Smith, one of Kentucky’s most engaging media personalities, offered his perspectives on the legacy of Vic Hellard and presented the 2008 Hellard Award to Sally Brown, for her leadership as a civic activist for education and the arts, and as a national leader in environmental protection.

A number of trends and forces are affecting Kentucky’s future, both positive and negative that require prompt and highly ambitious responses. On September 24, 2008, over 200 citizens and policymakers met at the Ali Center in Louisville to discuss transformational ideas for moving Kentucky forward. KET’s Bill Goodman moderated a panel to suggest and evaluate a range of big ideas for catapulting Kentucky forward.

• Lynn Allen, founder of Capital Innovations, Inc., helps clients with the technology, know-how, and human capital to nurture new businesses and commercialize technologies to leverage their networks and relationships into new assets and capital growth. She is a highly-accomplished capital builder who has represented organizations on both the buy- and sell-sides of institutional investing and large-scale partnerships. She has built markets and raised capital for the private, public, and nonprofit sectors and knows how these sectors think, what motivates them, and how they approach strategic relationships and capital investments.
• Bill Bishop, currently living in Austin, Texas, coauthored The Big Sort, a critical look at how “Americans have sorted themselves geographically, economically, and politically into like-minded communities over the last three decades” and the implications for American culture and politics. Bishop and his wife, Julie Ardery, co-edit The Daily Yonder, a web-based publication (dailyyonder.com) covering rural America.
• Dr. Melissa Fry Konty is a Program Associate for Research and Policy at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) in Berea. Joining MACED in August 2007, she uses policy research for achieving social justice. Her work has focused on public policy issues ranging from childcare to education as well as mental health to race relations.
• Dr. Ricky Jones is the chair of pan-African studies at the University of Louisville and author of What’s Wrong with Obamamania? Black America, Black Leadership and the Death of Political Imagination. His book takes a critical look at the rise of Barack Obama and what it means or doesn’t mean for black leadership in post-civil rights America.
• Kris Kimel is President and a founder of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, a non-profit company with an international reputation for designing and implementing innovative and broad-scale initiatives and programs, as well as the founder of the international IdeaFestival.
• Jeffrey Manber is a successful international entrepreneur in the technology and space arenas. He is the former CEO of Mir Corporation, the Dutch-based company that leased the Mir Space Station, which negotiated the first tourist in space…Dennis Tito.  Manber also helped lead the creation of the first venture fund focused on space. He  is currently active in global technology initiatives principally in the U.S.,  China, The United Kingdom and Russia. Manber, a frequent contributor on trade and policy issues to international publications, works out of Washington, DC.
• Russ Meredith is a graduating senior from the University of Louisville and the College of Business majoring in Management with Minors in Entrepreneurship and Sports Administration. He is currently serving as the President of an organization he founded called the Louisville Farmers’ Market Association and looks forward to continuing his career as a social entrepreneur.
• Dr. Melissa Walton-Shirley is a Cardiologist at T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, Kentucky, and was trained at the University of Louisville Medical School. Serving on the frontlines of Kentucky’s battle with chronic disease, she strives to improve the quality of life for her patients through effective public policy and responsible individual behaviors.