Christi Bell, CEcD

Associate Vice Provost & Executive Director
University of Alaska Anchorage Business Enterprise Institute
Anchorage, AK


Ms. Christi Bell is UAA Associate Vice Provost and the Executive Director of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Business Enterprise Institute (BEI). Through the BEI she leads the University’s economic development suite of programs including: the Alaska Small Business Development Center (SBDC), University of Alaska Center for Economic Development (UACED), Alaska Minority Business Development Assistance Center (MBDA), Alaska Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), Technology Research and Development Center (TREND), Alaska Cooperative Development Center (ACDC), UAA Center for Corporate and Professional Development (CCPD), Business Innovation Zone (BIZ), and the Applied Environmental Research Center (AERC).

Ms. Bell for more than 25 years has served as a consultant to development activities across Alaska including: comprehensive and strategic planning, business retention and expansion, cluster development, local grown, and tourism development initiatives for communities, tribal organizations as well as privately held businesses. Ms. Bell has also actively engaged to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem across Alaska, believed core to diversifying Alaska’s economy. Ms. Bell has also committed her career to improving the engagement of higher education in the work of economic development through leadership positions held with organizations such as the University Economic Development Association, Educational Association of University Centers and the APLU Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Prosperity.

Bell is an IEDC designated CEcD and has a Master of Business and Master of Science degree in Resource Management, both from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In addition to these academic designations, Ms. Bell grew up working in a variety of businesses held by her family and has launched and exited a few businesses of her own, as such, she often approaches engagements through this entrepreneurial lens.