Kevin O'Brien and The Center for Public Management will spend the next 10 months studying the feasibility of a joint effort to market and redevelop the region around Cleveland Hopkins International Airport into something called an “aerotropolis” to attract more transportation and logistics businessess. Funding for this research is being provided by the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Innovation Zone Program, Berea and Parma. See the story on Crain's Cleveland Business.

Dr. Ronnie Dunn and Dr. Bill Bowen are part of a group that submitted a proposal to identify possible racial inequities in the county’s criminal justice system, as noted in the Plain Dealer’s article “County gets proposals for justice review.”

Dr. Ziona Austrian and Dr. Brian Mikelbank received a grant of $55,250 from the Finance Fund in Columbus Ohio. The grant's objective is to assess economic and community development financing in Ohio. 

Dr. Ziona Austrian (principal investigator) and the Center for Economic Development were awarded:

• $17,700 from JumpStart for the project titled “JumpStart Impact and Contributions.”
• $102,000 from The Fund for Our Economic Future for the project titled "Dashboard Update 2008.”
• $24,955 from NASA for the project “An Economic Impact Study, 2007 Update." 
• $150,319 from the U.S. Department of Commerce for the project titled, “FY2008 University Center Economic Development Program Competition.”

Dr. Jeffrey L. Brudney, Albert A. Levin Chair of Urban Studies and Public Service, has received a grant of $8,800 from the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service to research "USDA Forest Service Volunteerism." 

Kathy Hexter (principal investigator) and the Center for Civic Education received an award for $74,084 from the Fund for Our Economic Future for the project titled “Fourth Annual Barometer of Economic Attitudes.”

Brian Mikelbank and Charlie Post served as consultants to Community Research Partners (CRP) for their project entitled "$60 Million and Counting: The cost of vacant and abandoned properties to eight Ohio cities." Community Research Partners (CRP) is a Columbus nonprofit research group.  Mikelbank and Post worked with CRP on several data, data analysis and GIS issues that arose during the research.  It was their involvement with CRP and Rebuild Ohio that led to their current research with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.  The comprehensive study documents the effects of vacant and abandoned properties in eight target cities in Ohio-Dayton, Ironton, Lima, Springfield, Toledo and Zanesville; the Columbus neighborhoods of Livingston-Driving Park, Franklinton and North Linden; and the Cleveland neighborhoods of Detroit Shoreway, Mount Pleasant and Slavic Village.

The Leadership Society Annual Banquet was held on May 7, 2008. The keynote guest speaker was Mr. Frederick R. Nance, Regional Managing Partner, Squire, Sanders Legal Counsel Worldwide. Mr. Nance's keynote was "Cleveland on the Move."

The banquet combined fundraising and a recognition ceremony for alumni of the Leadership Academy. Funds raised provide Leadership Academy scholarships for elected and appointed officials who would otherwise be unable to attend the training. The Leadership Academy Society acknowledges the following alumni with special awards:

• Darnell Brown, Outstanding Administrative Leader
• John Bender, Outstanding Elected Official
• Scott Osiecki, Outstanding Nonprofit Leaders
• Kacie Armstrong, Outstanding Academy Fellow-Academy

Mayor Frank Jackson, City of Cleveland, attended the dinner and presented the Outstanding Administrative Leader award to Darnell Brown, his colleague at the City.