Dr. Mark C. White is currently a Clinical Associate Professor with the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Through his extension appointment, Dr. White supports the activities of Illinois Extension’s Community and Economic Development program and regular contributions to Farmdoc Daily. He has collaborated with other extension professionals to develop an extension-focused workforce development curriculum as part of a project led by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development at Purdue University and the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU). Dr. White is also developing an undergraduate course on Business and Industry Data Analysis for the Spring 2024 semester.

Prior to starting at the University of Illinois in December 2023, Dr. White has served as an Associate Extension Professor and State Specialist in Missouri Extension’s Labor and Workforce Development Program. During his time at the University of Missouri, Dr. White led several sponsored projects ranging from a workforce needs assessment of Missouri’s food, agriculture and forestry industries, a labor market analysis of the St. Louis Bioscience Industry, a survey of perceptions about Career and Technical Education (CTE), and a review of state programs to attract and retain exiting military. He also organized several sessions designed to train economic development stakeholders how to find and use publicly-available data. During his time at the University of Missouri, he also served as the interim directors for the Truman School of Public Affairs Institute of Public Policy, and Missouri Extension’s Regional Economic and Entrepreneurial Development program.

Before moving to the University of Missouri, Dr. White was the Deputy Director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, where he worked on a variety of economic and workforce development research and planning projects throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Washington, DC metro area. Between 2004 and 2015, Dr. White was the Vice President for Research at the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness in Arlington, VA. During this time, he managed a wide variety of economic and workforce development research and technical assistance projects across the United States and Canada. Dr. White also developed and delivered professional development workshops related to topics such as applied economic and community research and data-driven, strategic planning for economic development.

Dr. White received a Doctor of Philosophy in International Studies from the University of Miami (FL), a Master’s of Arts in Geography from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Geography from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.