PDQ Advisory Board

Dr. George C. Levy, Ph.D.

George C. Levy is currently Executive Vice President and CFO at GDI Infotech, Inc., an information technology solutions consulting firm headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A successful serial entrepreneur, GDI Infotech is George’s fourth Inc. 500 company. George offers a broad experience in corporate and financial strategy and vast knowledge of how businesses work.

After earning his Ph.D. in chemistry from UCLA in 1968, George Levy joined the General Electric R&D Center. After 5 years and publication of his first book, he moved into academia as a professor for over 20 years. At Syracuse University, George taught within the Chemistry and Biophysics programs, as well as in an interdisciplinary graduate Entrepreneurship program.

At the beginning of the second decade of his academic career, George and his wife started a software firm, New Methods Research, which became an Inc. 500 company in 1989, achieving the distinction of being the 140th fastest growing private company in the U.S. That same year the company was sold, providing its investors with a profitable exit. The company is now part of Tripos Inc., formerly a subsidiary of Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation and now a NASDAQ company (TRPS). The successful process of growing his first company enhanced his interest in entrepreneurship and furthered his interest in developing technology businesses, including T/J Technologies in 1995, Advanced Modular Power Systems in 1996, and GDI Infotech, Inc. in 2000.

Dr. Levy has received numerous awards and honors, including: Thomas L. Saaty Prize for Applied Advances in the Mathematical and Management Sciences by the American Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences, 1990; John van Guens Professorship, University of Amsterdam, 1979; Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar, 1976 – 1981; and the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 1975 – 1977. Dr. Levy received an A.B. from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Reynolds Farley

Reynolds Farley, Ph.D., has studied and published about population trends since the 1960s. He is currently a Research Professor at the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center and was, previously, the Otis Dudley Duncan Professor of Sociology, at the University of Michigan. In addition to teaching at the University of Michigan, Dr. Farley was Vice-Present of the Russell Sage Foundation 1997- 1999; Senior Research Consultant at the National Academy of Science' Committee on the Status of Black Americans 1985-1988 and Demographic Statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau 1962 - 1963. He served as President of the Population Association of America and was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

His research interests concern population trends in the United States, focusing on racial differences, ethnicity, and urban structure. His current work includes an investigation of the consequences of attempts to revitalize the Rust Belt. He has authored and co-authored several articles and books. Recent publications include a summary of what Census 2000 revealed about racial residential segregation: "Segregation in the Metropolis,"(with John Logan and Brian Stults), Demography, (2004) and an edited volume, with John Haaga, summarizing findings from Census 2000 published by the Russell Sage Foundation in 2005: The American People: Census 2000. He is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the 2001 Robert J. Lapham Award of the Population Association of America and the 1997 Otis Dudley Duncan Award of the Population Section of the American Sociological Association for his book, The New American Reality. Dr. Farley received a B.A. in Sociology at the University of Notre Name, a M.A. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Farley resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is active with other local universities and population research centers.

Dr. William H. Frey

William H. Frey is a Ph.D. demographer and sociologist specializing in U.S. demographics. He is currently Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy in Washington DC. He is also on the faculty of the University of Michigan Population Studies Center and Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, CA. Dr. Frey received his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1974. In 1980-81 he was a Visiting Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria); in 1988 the Andrew W. Mellon Research Scholar at the Population Reference Bureau, Washington, DC; and in 1995, Hewlett Visiting Scholar at Child Trends in Washington, DC.

Dr. Frey has written widely on issues relating to migration, population redistribution, and the demography of metropolitan areas. He has authored well over 100 publications and several books including Regional and Metropolitan Growth and Decline in the US (Russell Sage, 1988, with Alden Speare, Jr); and America By the Numbers: A Fieldguide to the US Population (The New Press, 2001 with Bill Abresch and Jonathan Yeasting). At Michigan he has directed projects with the National Science Foundation, NICHD Center for Population Research, NIA, and several foundations. He has contributed to the 1995 President's National Urban Policy Report, to HUD's State of the Cities 2000 report, to the Russell Sage Foundation's Census research series in 1980 and 1990, and has been consultant to the US Census Bureau on migration research and publications. He is a contributing editor to American Demographics magazine.

Dr. Frey has also been active in creating demographic media for use by educators, policy makers and the general public. Examples are the websites: http://www.frey-demographer.org, http://www.ssdan.net, and http://www.CensusScope.org.