Yassert Gonzalez | Economics, Demographics, and Research Manager | Tenure: 7 months
Yassert Gonzalez liked Tampa Bay so much he had to come back! Yassert started last December as the Economics, Demographics, and Research Manager. He oversees the Reference and Analytics Team. His team routinely assists the public with research questions. Yassert provides the agency with economics and demographics data analytics. He develops official small area population and employment numbers. Recently, he delivered 2019 block-level housing units and persons per acre estimates for HART. He also verified and sourced demographic and economic data for the county’s LEED application. He studies, analyzes and reports on economic trends affecting our area. In his most recent newsletter article, Yassert plainly and intuitively guided the reader through the most relevant economic health and recovery indicators.
Yassert is originally from Santiago, Dominican Republic. He has lived in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida. This explains his love of languages, wicked sense of humor, energetic personality, and inscrutable accent. He previously served in senior economics and water use planning positions at two water management districts. There, he assisted in enforcement cases, developed/reviewed population and water use projections, crafted/reviewed administrative rule language, and performed/supervised complex economic analyses.
Aside from being an economist, Yassert has had several interesting paid and unpaid jobs. In his youth, he worked as an amusement ride operator. At the peak of the season, he and his award-winning team facilitated safe and joyous riding experiences for several hundred folks daily! Yassert was also a bill collector for the first digital mobile telephone service in the nation. At their peak, he and his crack team were recovering $1,000,000 a month. Yassert loves to volunteer his time with nonprofit organizations. He has served as a treasurer of his cycling club. He has traveled extensively to volunteer with the slam poetry community. At national and regional poetry events, he has been the loudest fan, judge, timekeeper, scorekeeper, bout manager, spreadsheet wizard, and sound person. So, it can be said that Yassert has literally toured with the [slam poetry!] band.
Yassert has economics degrees from Kutztown University (Go Golden Bears!) and The University of Georgia (Go dawgs! Beat the Gators!). In his spare time, Yassert loves to go on really long walks around the city (pondering and soliloquizing on the great questions!), ride his lime green road bike, attend plays and concerts, and compete in trivia. Yassert also takes improv theater classes in case this economics manager gig does not work out.
