About Don Iannone
Don Iannone has worked in economic development and public policy for over forty years. He managed and led economic development organizations in Northeast Ohio for eight years, and he directed the economic development and environmental centers at Cleveland State University for fourteen years. From 2000 to 2016, Don provided economic development and public policy consulting services to over 100 communities, regions, states, port authorities, Federal agencies, colleges and universities, business corporations, American Indian tribes, and several international clients. His work has carried him to thirty-two states, ten countries, and ten Native American communities.
Don contributed to statewide economic development strategies for the administrations of four Ohio governors (Celeste, Voinovich, Taft, and Strickland). He was the economic development advisor to George Voinovich’s first gubernatorial campaign in 1990. He served on the boards of the National Council for Urban Economic Development (NCUED), the American Economic Development Council (AEDC), the MidAmerican Economic Development Council (MAEDC), and the Ohio Development Association (OEDA). In 1993, he chaired the Federal Policy Committee of NCUED and advised President Bill Clinton’s transition team on economic development policy issues. For six years, he was a member of the Environmental Finance Advisory Board (EFAB) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, advising USEPA on financing policies and programs. He has repeatedly given expert testimony to the U.S. Congress and several state legislatures.
He is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at international, national, and regional economic development and public policy conferences and training workshops. He served on the Economic Development Institute (EDI) faculty at the University of Oklahoma for twelve years, teaching economic developers from across the United States. Don authored four nonfiction books, including one on economic development policy, several economic development monographs, ten poetry collections, and ten photographic essays. His newest book, "America's Dream at a Crossroads, The 2024 Presidential Election and Beyond," will be released in the summer of 2024. In addition, twenty of his academic and professional articles have been published in national and international journals. Don is a full member of the Authors Guild, American Academy of Poets, Poetry Society of America, and Literary Cleveland.
Since 2020, Don has taught graduate business courses at Transcontinental University, where he currently supervises doctoral candidates' dissertations from Ghana and Malta. Don holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Don grew up in Eastern Ohio’s coal and steel country in the 1950s and 1960s. He and his wife, Mary, reside in Greater Cleveland.