Caroline Paras

Caroline Paras is a Research Analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Research, where she specializes in applied research to facilitate the growth and vitality of Maine’s economy.

For 20 years, Caroline served as a regional economic developer in Maine, where she specialized in downtown revitalization, business retention and expansion, brownfield redevelopment, tourism, affordable housing, and the sustainability of working waterfronts and local food systems. In 2014, she helped Greater Portland earn an elite Federal designation from the White House as one of the nation’s 24 Manufacturing Communities, which leveraged $50 million in funding for the region’s food cluster.

As an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. major at the University of Maine, Caroline is exploring the role of agritourism in transforming visitors into lifelong consumers of Maine farm and fish products while cultivating a premium for local food. As a Lecturer of Local Food and Agritourism in the University of Southern Maine’s Tourism & Hospitality program, she engages students in experiential learning opportunities that support the growth of Maine’s local food system, a philosophy born from a decade of training teachers and policymakers in K-16 service-learning throughout New England and the nation.

A first-generation American and a first-generation college student, Caroline lives in Portland, where she is an avid figure skater and swing dancer.