Hometown: Brandon, SD    

Current City: Rochester, MN

Undergraduate Institution and Major: University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish. 

Graduate Institution and Major: University of South Dakota, Master of Public Administration (Leadership Theory emphasis). 

Bio: Joya grew up in various small towns in the Midwest. While she has always felt a connection to those communities, after working for the past seven (7) years in economic development, she truly began to understand how to positively utilize her educational background, experience, and talents to impact rural America. Her education and work history touch an array of essential and seemingly unrelated sectors that have become impactful parts of Joya’s growth as a professional. Joya has had the opportunity to independently create, administer, and monitor a variety of business incentive programs and utilize research methods to quantitatively and qualitatively collect and analyze citizen input. She is passionate about helping small communities increase livability, engaging the public (including youth) in decision-making, encouraging proactive and strategic planning for the future, and creatively and transparently developing programs to incent development.

Email: Jstet2@uis.edu 

Relevant Experience: Joya currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Minnesota-based non-profit Community and Economic Development Associates (CEDA). She manages a team of 35 to assist rural communities under 10,000 in population with strategic and proactive economic development efforts. Joya also serves as the Economic Development Director for Stewartville, MN, through CEDA. Before her work at CEDA, Joya was employed with the State of Nebraska’s Real Property Appraiser Board. She focused on compliance investigations, licensure requirements, and education verification for new and existing appraisers in the State. She has consistently employed the knowledge gained from her MPA studies in her everyday work.  

Research Interests: Community/citizen engagement, planning, community development, incentive program development, community livability, and economic development. Joya is especially interested in how programs and policies impact rural communities differently than larger cities.

Professional Affiliations: Board of Directors member for the Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI)