Simona Balazs is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Education Policy Studies and Evaluation at UK and has a MS in Resource and Applied Economics from University of Nevada, Reno.  Some of her interests include economic impact modeling, the role of education in community and economic development, and methods of evaluation. She has extensive experience working on economic development projects as a research assistant during her graduate studies.

Her work with Blueprint Kentucky includes creating and maintaining the County Data Profiles, analyzing economic data using IMPLAN and ArcGIS, conducting exploratory economic research, and writing reports and manuscripts.