Debra Menk is a Project Manager in CAR’s Sustainability & Economic Development Group, which she joined in 2006.  She works in the areas of economic modeling and public policy analysis.  Ms. Menk frequently studies the impact that automotive industry behavior has on both national and state economies.  In one CAR study, for instance, she helped to quantify the total impact on U.S. employment of Toyota’s U.S.-based operations.

Ms. Menk has an M.B.A. with an emphasis in finance from The Garvin School of International Management, also known as Thunderbird.  She has completed several graduate-level engineering courses at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.  She received her B.A. from Valparaiso University.

Ms. Menk has spent much of her career as a power industry analyst, working for utility companies and vendors to the industry.  She developed econometric models that projected power plant operations, capacity growth, fuel prices, and demand.  She has also worked at Wisconsin Electric Power Company and the Arkansas Small Business Development Center.