Dennis Alvord

Deputy Assistant Secretary

Economic Development Administration (EDA)

U.S. Department of Commerce

Website

Biography

Dennis Alvord serves as EDA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development and Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for enterprise-wide operations and program execution. Mr. Alvord concurrently performed the duties of the Assistant Secretary and the Deputy Assistant Secretaries of Economic Development and Regional Affairs from April 2017 through March 2019.

Active in the Department, he was elected as Co-Chair of the Department Management Council, comprised of senior executives from all of Commerce’s principal operating units. Previously, as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary, he worked on a broad portfolio of department-wide management, operations, program and policy issues and co-chaired the Department of Commerce’s 2016-17 Presidential Transition, coordinating efforts across the Department and with the White House and President Elect’s Transition Team.

Preceding his Senior Advisor role, he led start-ups as Executive Director of BusinessUSA, a government-wide, multiagency customer service initiative that promoted and improved access to business assistance resources, and as Executive Director of the Department of Commerce’s CommerceConnect initiative, which simplified access to the Department’s business solutions.

Before joining the federal government, Mr. Alvord worked as a manager in the infrastructure finance group of an environmental and transportation consulting practice. Mr. Alvord holds a Master of Public Administration from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the State University of New York College at Cortland. He is a recipient of the 2015 President’s Award for Customer Service.

Nicole Griensewic

Executive Director

Region Nine Development Commission in Minnesota

Biografy:

Griensewic has served as Executive Director of Region Nine Development Commission since 2012. As executive director, Griensewic has made it a priority to foster collaboration and engagement by sharing Region Nine’s story both regionally and globally. Griensewic is an active board and committee member for multiple organizations throughout Minnesota. Griensewic is the immediate past President of the Greater Minnesota Partnership, and is the first female to chair the Executive Committee for the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies, where she served as chair of the Governance Committee. Griensewic also served as secretary of Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota’s Governing Board of Directors and chaired the Governance Committee and currently serves as an advisory board member for South Central College’s Center for Agriculture. She serves on the executive committee for the MACS Board, Minnesotans for the American Community Survey Board of Directors and represents the Midwest on the National Assoc. of Development Orgs.’s (NADO) Board of Directors.

Griensewic is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and has completed course work through Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Executive Education. She received the 2017 Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Her professional background includes extensive private sector and non-profit leadership experience.