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Thomas Tunstall PhD’00

Home: San Antonio, Texas

UT Dallas Degree: MBA ’92 (Jindal School of Management), 
PhD ’00 (Political Economy, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences)
Profession: Research Director, UT San Antonio Institute for Economic Development

My Work

Research director with 20 years of experience in both private and public sector strategy, including economic modeling, economic development, public sector reform, policy development, business project management and implementation, promoting and implementing business-friendly and international best practice-compliant rules and regulatory agendas. Principal investigator for Eagle Ford Shale Economic Impact Studies (May 2012, March 2013, forthcoming September 2014), and West Texas Energy Consortium Study (June 2014) which examines ongoing developments in the fast-moving unconventional shale oil and gas industry and its impact on communities. Authored and presented TEDx Talk in San Antonio on the impact of unconventional oil and gas extraction on community development (October 2013). Experience implementing federally funded economic development programs including USAID activities in East Africa, Zambia, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. Top Secret clearance obtained in 2012.

Honors/accolades, additional degrees received, and/or previous work/positions held

2013 Kathi Homan Award, UTSA Institute for Economic Development
2013 Award for Excellence, UTSA Institute for Economic Development

UTSA community outreach consisting of approximately (40) speaking engagements annually in the U.S. and Mexico.

Recent TED talk

Have published or in the process of publishing several items, including articles in the Wall Street Journal, Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy(forthcoming 2014), Petroleum Accounting and Financial Management Journal, among others and also a book chapter in Unconventional Shale Gas Development: Economics and Impacts, edited by William Hefley and Yongsheng Wang, Springer (forthcoming Fall 2014).

The Value of My Degree

By fostering an interdisciplinary approach to economic and social research – a direction in which more research opportunities are headed in the future.

EPPS Great faculty in a leading edge research-intensive institution.

Advice for EPPS Students

Take the most rigorous, challenging courses that you can in order to differentiate yourself.