August Guest Speaker
Allison Plyer, Chief Demographer of The Data Center in New Orleans
Dr. Plyer is co-author of The Prosperity Index: Tricentennial Edition. This publication asks whether black New Orleanians have experienced increased economic inclusion since the Civil Rights Era. She is author of The New Orleans Index series, developed in collaboration with the Brookings Institution to analyze the state of the New Orleans recovery and later to track the region’s progress toward prosperity. She served as an editor for the Brookings Institution Press volume entitled “Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the U.S. Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita.” Allison is recognized as an international expert in post–Katrina demographics and disaster recovery trends. She frequently provides commentary on regional recovery and development to local and national media such as Fox8 television, WBOK radio, the New Orleans Times Picayune,NPR,the Associated Press, and the New York Times.
Allison received her Doctorate in Science from Tulane University’s School of Public
Health and Tropical Medicine. She has an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a BA in religious studies and Spanish from Vanderbilt University, magna cum laude, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Plyer is on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee, and she is a Life Fellow of the Louisiana Effective Leadership Program.