College

Agricultural Sciences

Department

Agricultural and Resource Economics

Category

Food and Nutrition, Economics

Areas of Expertise

Local food systems

Dawn Thilmany

Dawn Thilmany is a professor of Agricultural Economics, director of the Northwest and Rocky Mountain USDA Regional Food Center and co-director of the Regional Economic Development Institute at Colorado State University.  She also serves on the Colorado Food System Advisory Council.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Thilmany concentrated on the effects on small food producers’ local distribution systems, providing input to the federal stimulus bill of 2020.

She specializes in regional economic development related to local, organic, entrepreneurs and food market supply chains. She is focused on developing engaged community development initiatives focused on rural Colorado and the Western US with support from the United States Department of Agriculture and Economic Development Administration. An underlying theme of her research and Extension is the analysis and framing of alternatives related to the unique attributes, amenities and assets of places and how they may affect the market and policy dynamics that shape the environment and choices faced by Colorado household, farms, businesses and communities.

Thilmany holds a B.S. with honors from Iowa State University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of California, Davis.