Chris Chmura was featured on the cover of the Richmond Times-Dispatch metro business section on May 24, 2010. Click here to read the full article.

Joe Mahoney/Times-Dispatch

When economist Christine Chmura was a teen in Cleveland thinking about college, she did what anyone who knows her might expect:

She made a matrix. A list of schools on one hand, her criteria on the other. Then, she tallied up the checkmarks that showed which colleges met what she wanted.

Women's athletics: She was a runner.

Size: She was looking for a large university.

Agronomy: Yes, farming.

"I was an early environmentalist and saw myself doing research," Chmura explained. "I took an earth science class as a freshman in high school and did quite a bit of reading on environmental topics. . . . Soil erosion was a big topic related to environmental issues. Hence, agronomy. The study of soil was the important piece."

In the end, as only some economists might expect, there was a tie between the University of Arkansas and Clemson University.

And Chmura's response was what many of her clients say not enough economists do: Check with a real person. Her dad, in this case.

"She never forgets that the end of a study or an analysis is a person," said Sara J. Dunnigan, senior vice president at the Greater Richmond Partnership, the region's economic development agency.

Her dad, by the way, said Clemson. And she listened to him.

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