Josh Carpenter, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Carpenter joined Southern Research in 2021. Prior to joining the organization, Carpenter served as director of innovation and economic opportunity for the City of Birmingham, where he led the city’s efforts in talent development, COVID-19 recovery and business expansion. Previously, he served as the director of external affairs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he was also an assistant professor in economics. Josh is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, serves on the boards of Birmingham Promise and he American Association of Rhodes Scholars, and co-chaired Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin’s transition committee. He earned a doctorate in political economy from the University of Oxford where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship.