Ioanna Morfessis (pronounced: ) is an American businesswoman and economic development strategist and practitioner. She founded four economic development organizations and established programs and tools that became models for communities across the U.S. Morfessis helped to launch America's first "one-stop" business assistance center for minority enterprises, based in Washington, D.C.; spearheaded the nation’s first R&D park dedicated to biotechnology firms and institutions, located in Montgomery County, MD; and catalyzed the City of Phoenix's first public-private economic development partnership, the Phoenix Economic Growth Corporation. She is the founding President/CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. Biography A first generation American of Greek heritage, Morfessis was born in Washington, D.C. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from American University, a Master’s of Public Administration from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Arizona State University. Morfessis was the director of resource development for the Greater Washington Business Center in Washington, D.C. from December 1974 to November 1977. In 1975, she helped to launch the nation's first "one-stop" business assistance center for small minority business enterprises which resulted in the formation of the Metropolitan Washington Minority Purchasing Council, which established and achieved company goals for minority participation in government contracts. She also helped to stage the Opportunity Fair of 1976 – one of the first nationwide minority procurement trade fairs in the U.S. Morfessis was the appointed the acting director of the Office of Economic Development and Agricultural Development in Montgomery County where she was the key architect of the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, the U.S.’s first research and development park devoted exclusively to biotechnology. She led the establishment of a partnership between the County, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop ultramodern laboratories for R&D in biosciences: the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB). She also facilitated an agreement with Johns Hopkins University to locate a graduate teaching facility at the Life Sciences Center. She recruited Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company to locate in the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, the first Japanese R&D lab to locate in the U.S. In 1981, Morfessis helped to establish the Economic Advisory Council, a private, blue chip organization of CEOs to advise the County Executive on economic, fiscal, and management issues. From July 1985 to August 1989, Morfessis was the executive director of the Phoenix Economic Growth Corporation (economic development partnership between Phoenix