Donald L. Schunk has been named to the position of research economist with the Coastal Federal Center for Economic and Community Development at Coastal Carolina University. Schunk was formerly with the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.

At Coastal Schunk will conduct research in the areas of economic impact and development, as well as cost/benefit analyses for public and private projects. He will develop and maintain a database of regional economic indicators and will publish economic forecasts. Schunk will serve as a liaison with the area business community and state and local governments.

"Don brings considerable and experience and expertise to this important new position," says Gary Loftus, director of CCU's Coastal Federal Center for Economic and Community Development. "He will advance the mission of the center significantly by helping to serve as a bridge between the university and the business community."

Schunk joined the USC faculty in 1999, where he was responsible for tracking, forecasting and analyzing national and state economic conditions for the Moore School's Division of Research. He generated monthly and quarterly publications detailing economic trends for the U.S., South Carolina, and local economies across the state. He also conducted sponsored and applied research including many economic impact studies and forecasting projects funded by both private and public agencies and institutions across the state.

Schunk's academic research interests are in the broad fields of regional economics, public economics, macro/monetary economics and time series analysis.

He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Bemidji State University in Minnesota in 1995 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Tennessee in 1999.