Jen Gregory serves as executive director of the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board (“Southern Tier 8”), a multifaceted economic development and planning agency coordinating activities in eight counties (Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Tioga, and Tompkins) in the Southern Tier region of Upstate New York. Gregory began her career as a GIS specialist and has transformed Southern Tier 8 into a dynamic, nimble planning agency with a sharp focus on the facilitation of forward-thinking ideas and practical solutions, creating economic opportunities for the eight-county region’s urban and rural areas. Currently, she is working on large-scale infrastructure projects including clean energy and bringing fiber to every address in Southern Tier 8’s region under the initiative Project Connect. She received a NADO Innovation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations in 2017 and a 2019 NADO Impact Award. Gregory graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s in environmental geoscience.