My research focuses on processes of economic restructuring in US metropolitan areas and their impact on income inequality and labor market outcomes.  While I examine the impact of traditional measures of economic change (e.g globalization, technological change) I am particularly interested in the role of social institutions and governance processes—particularly those that form at the urban and metropolitan scale—in influencing economic outcomes. 

My past research and professional practice focused on closely related issues including: evaluating economic development policies, measuring the labor market impacts of big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart, and examining the role of Federal and State spending on urban sprawl.  Currently, I study issues of economic resilience and equitable community development with Dr. Karen Chapple and the Center for Community Innovation. I also work with Dr. Ted Egan and ICF Consulting on economic development strategies for the City of San Francisco.

As a practicing planner in the field of economic development I have worked as a researcher at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO and as an Economic Development Planner at the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago.   I also interned with the Planning Department in the city of my birth (Chicago). 

Before coming to Berkeley (Go Bears!), I received a Bachelor of Arts (1999) from the University of Pennsylvania (Go Quakers!) and a Master or Urban Planning and Policy (2001) from the University of Illinois at Chicago (Go Flames!). 

I’ve also served as a GSI for CP204a “Methods of Planning Data Analysis” in 2004 and 2005 and am generally proud to wear the label “data dork”.