Ms. Golemi is the Director of the EDA University Center at Georgia Tech. The University Center (UC) program is specifically designed to marshal the resources located within colleges and universities to support regional economic development strategies in regions of chronic and acute economic distress. She is also Senior Research Faculty at Georgia Tech.

In her current role, Ms. Golemi leads programs that provide support to communities and other universities with their innovation-led economic development initiatives. These initiatives foster collaborations among informal network players to drive public policy, strategic planning, startup ecosystem formation, and fiscal and economic impact metrics. Her background includes sixteen years of experience in the field of economic development in the private sector and higher education. Ms. Golemi has expertise in turning complex data into information that leads to strategic decisions and the realization of aggressive goals.

Ms. Golemi co-led successfully Georgia Tech’s application for the Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation from the APLU, and co-developed a plan of action addressing Georgia Tech’s future engagement in regional economic growth. She currently manages the university’s designation, ensures preparation and delivery of biannually reports required to maintain the current designation and represents Georgia Tech at APLU’s Annual Conferences and Commission on Economic and Community Engagement’s (CECE) Summer meetings. In addition, Ms. Golemi co-led the application that resulted in Georgia Tech winning the prestigious “2014 Innovation Award” from APLU.

Prior to joining EI2, Ms. Golemi was the Director and Economist of the Economic Strategy Center, an economic development research and analysis firm where she managed a variety of projects including economic and fiscal analysis, benchmarking analysis, and program performance evaluations.

Ms. Golemi is an accredited member of the University Economic Development Association (UEDA), APLU’s Commission on Economic and Community Engagement’s (CECE,) International Business Innovation Association (InBIA), Atlanta Economics Club, Georgia Economic Developers Association (GEDA) and the C2ER – the Council for Community and Economic Research. She served on the Planning Committee for CECE’s 2019 Summer meeting. She earned her master’s degree in economics from Middle Tennessee State University and her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Tirana. She also completed studies at Vanderbilt University.