Center for Community and Business Research

Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D., became director of the Center for Community and Business Research in November 2011, where he leads a staff of economists and researchers who provide economic impact analyses, assessments, and feasibility studies on a wide variety of topics. He comes to the center with many years of experience in economic development, strategic planning, IT management and research for corporate and governmental entities, including KPMG Consulting and USAID. Tunstall’s career includes work with small businesses across the U.S. as well as international economic business development experience in Azerbaijan, Kenya, Zambia, Guam and Afghanistan. He is also the author of Outsourcing and Management (2007). Tunstall holds a doctorate in economics and public policy and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Javier Oyakawa is a business and economics researcher at the Center for Community and Business Research (CCBR). He finished the doctoral program at the Economics Department from the University of Texas at Austin. Recently he has developed research on unit roots and co-integration tests for the estimation of trade elasticities using STATA; on input-output analyses of the educational and training content of the labor force in the U.S; and on computational general equilibrium models for analyzing trade and fiscal policies using GEMPACK, GAMS, and SAS.

As part of his duties for the CCBR, he has developed economic impact studies for several firms and economic analyses of regions affected by external events for different agencies. In the past, he has had administrative and financial management experience in academic and commercial institutions. He obtained a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Christine joined the Center for Community and Business Research as a Business/Economics Research Associate in January 2010. Previously, she has worked for the SBDC National Information Clearinghouse, the University of Texas at San Antonio's Economics Department, and the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council. She holds an M.A. in economics from UTSA and a B.A. from Providence College.