COLUMBUS, OHIO – Wednesday, August 5, 2026 – The Ohio Economic Development Association (OEDA) announced today that Mike Brice has been hired as its new Marketing & Engagement Manager. He will begin his role on September 2, 2026.
Brice joins OEDA following an extensive national search that drew 350 applicants and included written submissions, portfolio and work sample reviews, and multiple rounds of interviews with OEDA staff, members, and board leadership.
In this role, Brice will lead OEDA’s marketing, communications, and member engagement work across the state. He will oversee the organization’s digital platforms, including the weekly OEDA Express newsletter, social media, and content strategy, while supporting event promotion, brand development, education marketing, and member and investor engagement.
Brice comes to OEDA from The Blade in Toledo, where he has served as Managing Editor since 2024, leading news coverage across northwest Ohio and the state, including economic development, business, and workforce reporting. He previously served as the newspaper’s Assistant Managing Editor and City Editor and, before that, as Digital News Director, where he owned the newspaper’s website, app, and social channels and executed a digital strategy that grew website traffic by 50% and mobile app use by 32%.
“Mike is a storyteller who already understands economic development. He has covered it, and he knows what a project announcement actually means for a community,” said David Zak, President & CEO of OEDA. “He brings writing, media relations, video, photography, social media, and one of the most advanced approaches to AI-assisted content production we saw in this search. Most importantly, he wants to serve the practitioners doing this work in every corner of Ohio.”
Across 25 years, Brice’s work spans journalism, corporate communications, and public relations. He served as Public Relations Specialist at the Toledo Museum of Art, provided communications counsel to Honda North America leadership through Andrew Woods & Associates, and held progressive corporate communications roles at Westinghouse Electric Company and Sunoco Inc., where he led executive and employee communications and served as a media spokesperson. He began his career as a daily newspaper reporter in Sandusky and Fremont and has worked as an independent communications consultant, photographer, and videographer.
A consistent thread in his recent work is the practical application of artificial intelligence to content production. Brice introduced AI-assisted editorial workflows at The Blade to standardize responsible, high-volume output, and built an automated pipeline that converts news feeds into broadcast scripts for a television news partner. That capability is central to OEDA’s plans to expand the volume and reach of its content for members without adding staff.
“Economic development is one of the most consequential stories in Ohio, and it is chronically under-told,” said Brice. “OEDA sits at the center of a network of practitioners doing that work in every corner of the state. I want members to see their work reflected back to them, and I want the rest of Ohio to understand what these professionals actually do every day.”
Brice lives in Oregon, Ohio. He holds a Master of Professional Communication from Weber State University, a certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University, and a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Toledo.
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About the Ohio Economic Development Association
The Ohio Economic Development Association (OEDA) is the statewide professional association for economic developers and their partners, working to train, inform, connect, and advocate on behalf of Ohio’s economic development professionals. With more than 900 members, OEDA is one of the top five state economic development associations in the country. It delivers nationally recognized programming through the Ohio Economic Development Institute (OEDI), including the nation’s largest Basic Economic Development Course, and hosts the OEDA Annual Summit, the nation’s largest state-level economic development conference. Learn more at ohioeda.com.