Kaskie is a community economic development and leadership facilitator, coach, and researcher who is passionate about leveraging university and partner resources to help small communities, businesses, and stakeholders achieve their visions. He is a federal economic development administrator grant project investigator and has the rank of associate professor as a Rural Prosperity Nebraska Extension educator for the University of Nebraska, based out of Broken Bow, serving the surrounding eight-county rural area. Kaskie was the outreach Project coordinator for the Nebraska Rural Futures Institute and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Rural Development at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He is a professional community and economic developer with over 20 years of experience in applied research, planning, and facilitation. He works with communities and private entities to develop market research reports, business feasibility studies, and community economic, tourism and housing profiles/studies. His recent lead on applied community research projects with rural cooperative groceries in Stapleton, Ravenna and Callaway provide local knowledge of community development process from experience on five rural grocery applied research projects and coursework as a doctoral candidate in rural leadership at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.