Economics & Demographics Program
About the Economics and Demographics Team
The Economics and Demographics Team conducts ongoing analysis of Maine’s economy to inform planning and policy decisions made throughout the state. The team assists the Governor, Legislature, and other state agencies in monitoring the Maine economy, formulating and evaluating economic initiatives, analyzing policy alternatives, and pursuing sustainable economic growth. The team also staffs the Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission; serves as the State’s official liaison to the Census Bureau; and operates the State Data Center, which provides access to data produced by the US Census Bureau.
Economics and Demographics Team Members
Catherine Reilly is Maine’s State Economist. She manages the Economics and Demographics team and sits on the State’s Revenue Forecasting Committee. Ms. Reilly is SPO’s representative on the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet and Cabinet for Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs, and serves on the advisory board of the New England Public Policy Center. Prior to her appointment in August 2005, she served as economic advisor at SPO. She began her career as a researcher at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine. Her work there focused on public support for higher education, youth migration, and state tax policy. Ms. Reilly graduated from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics and holds a BA in Economics from Loyola College in Maryland and an MA in Economics from Fordham University. She is a native of Hancock County and now lives in Portland.
Amanda Rector transforms data and reports released by the US Census Bureau into various products for audiences inside and outside of state government. She coordinates Maine’s State Data Center and works on special research projects. Prior to joining the SPO Economics and Demographics team in March 2007, Amanda worked at the Maine Department of Labor, Division of Labor Market Information Services. While there, she worked on a number of research projects utilizing the unemployment insurance wage records. Amanda has a BA in economics from Wellesley College. She is originally from Camden and now lives in Topsham with her fiancée.
David Douglass is an economist serving on the Economics and Demographics Team as support staff for the Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission and provides economic analysis in response to requests from other state agencies, the legislature, and the public. David joined SPO at the beginning of 2006, having previously worked in health insurance, municipal government, and as an extension officer in the Peace Corps.
Mike LeVert is an economist and statistician, with a Masters degree in Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His interests include non-market valuation (quantifying benefits associated with goods not traded in a market, like the environment), and leveraging Maine’s Quality of Place as an economic development strategy. Mike has experience with data analysis software tools and is the president of SAS Users Group of Maine. He has worked as a statistician for the marketing department at LLBean, and, most recently, as a health care data analyst for a disease management firm in Portland. Mike lives in Cumberland with his wife Fonda, daughter Robin, and dog Jack.
