Casey Bell

Casey J. Bell is an impact-focused applied economist with 15+ years’ experience working with CDFIs, non-profits, start-ups and utilities to direct capital to financial wellness, clean energy and place-based community development initiatives supporting a just and inclusive economy for all. She is adept at partnering with innovators, policymakers and stakeholders at the federal, state, and local level to accelerate systems change.

As Chief Impact Officer for Pacific Community Ventures, Casey is committed to capitalizing and supporting a small business ecosystem that creates “good jobs” and wealth creation opportunities at the foundation of the U.S. economy. She helms the Good Jobs Innovation Lab, launched in 2022, and PCV’s Business Advising platform. The Lab serves as a catalyst to innovation in CDFI product development and service delivery that incentivize the short- and long-term outcomes along PCV’s Theory of Change in historically underestimated communities. The team is pioneering research techniques that lift the voices of the communities they serve alongside advanced data analytics techniques to catalyze deep, measurable impact outcomes for women and BIPOC entrepreneurs – addressing market failures that perpetuate racial and gender wealth gaps.

Prior to joining PCV, Casey’s team built and established a knowledge product platform to empower over 1,500 rural electric cooperative utility executives annually. The platform supplies financial analysis tools, benchmarking data and training to navigate energy industry transformation – supporting the adoption of renewable technology, improvement of grid reliability, catalyzation of community & economic development, adoption of ESG KPIs and deployment of broadband solutions.

Casey established the Finance Policy research portfolio at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Her team applied behavioral frameworks to address barriers to energy efficiency lending – with a focus on generating savings and health benefits within underserved markets. She also led input-output modeling to demonstrate the power of clean energy policy and investment to support job creation and a more productive economy.

Previously, she led the Federal Reserve’s efforts to understand consumer adoption of digital and mobile banking and informed their consumer protection efforts during the 2008 financial crisis. Her contributions to the Fed’s joint work with Army Emergency Relief to research the impact of financial education on the financial health of enlisted soldiers informed the strengthened disclosure requirements in the 2008 revisions to the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). At the Brookings Institution, her work drilling down into alternative market data in underserved communities supported the revitalization of Downtown Detroit.

She has B.A.s in Economics and Political Science from Muhlenberg College, and an M.A. in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University. In 2021, she completed a Certificate for the Managerial Development Program through Wharton School of Business Aresty Institute of Executive Education. The most enriching credential she holds is “parent,” and she is determined to drive change that enables all children to thrive equitably.