Vera Krekanova

Vera Krekanova is the chief strategy and research officer for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. She serves as a critical member of the leadership team, playing a key role in the development of economic development strategies and policy interventions. Vera is directly responsible for developing, monitoring and evaluating regional economic development and inclusive growth agenda, and leading the organization’s think tank, the Economy League of Greater Pittsburgh, to generate robust evidence and strategic insights for the board and internal C-level decision makers, and to provide thought leadership on regional economic development issues.

Vera has 20 years of experience in workforce and economic development. Prior to joining the Allegheny Conference in 2018, she served as the chief strategy officer at Partner4Work where she developed strategic partnerships and new business opportunities to systemically defragment regional workforce development system, led numerous private-public collaboratives to address regional workforce issues, and created robust internal research and evaluation platform.

Since 2010, Vera has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. She also serves on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland – Pittsburgh Branch, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, Friends of Via, and the Women’s Health Activist Movement Global. She is a former member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Pittsburgh Business Advisory Council.

Vera holds a BA in social work from Charles University in Prague, an MS in nonprofit management from Robert Morris University, and a PhD in social and comparative analysis in public policy from the University of Pittsburgh.