Drew Digby

Helping community find meaning, connection, and health is at the center of my lie trajectory. (Alternate: My career life trajectory has been about engaging the communities we live in.) As a child, I loved the big city life of Los Angeles, New York, and Paris, but as I have grown I have found a love for many kinds of communities including small cities, rural places, and much to my surprise, vibrant suburbs.

 

I’ve been fortunate to have many chapters in this life, including:

• Journalism and writing

• Studying history

• Blurring the boundaries between workforce, community, and economic development (each of those careers by themselves are often ineffective)

• Arts administration 

• Supporting academics and creative workers

 

My life hasn’t been without mistakes or regrets. Jobs I should have taken, jobs I should have stayed at, jobs I should have pushed harder for. I sometimes wonder if more prestigious positions would have come my way had I stayed in specific planes longer.

 

Currently, I’m a research administrator for the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA. I work with faculty members to help them refine research proposals and obtain funding for their work. 

 

Before that, I served for five years as the executive director of the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council in Minnesota. ARAC serves more than 18,000 square miles of Northeastern Minnesota as part of Minnesota’s system of regional arts councils, providing grants and services to artists and arts organizations. I also served as President of the Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota and as a board member for Minnesota Citizens for the Arts. 

 

Other jobs have included: Economic and Strategy Analyst for the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, Long-Term Recovery Manager for Carlton County, Minnesota; Regional Labor Market Analyst 

 

 has also worked in economic and community development, taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and worked as a journalist. His articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and the Denver Post.

 

I hold an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, as well as a BA in Religious Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

Drew Digby is a research administrator for the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA. He works with faculty members to help them refine research proposals and obtain funding for their work. 

 

Previously, Digby served for five years as the executive director of the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council in Minnesota. ARAC serves more than 18,000 square miles of Northeastern Minnesota as part of Minnesota’s system of regional arts councils, providing grants and services to artists and arts organizations. He also served as President of the Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota and as a board member for Minnesota Citizens for the Arts. 

 

Digby has also worked in economic and community development, taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and worked as a journalist. His articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and the Denver Post.

 

Digby holds an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, as well as a BA in Religious Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.