I am an Urban and Economic Geographer currently affiliated with the Community Vitality Project and the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. My research examines the distribution of costs and benefits associated with local economic development policies and particularly the models we use to study these policies.

My work with the Community Vitality Project currently centers on the methods we use to define economic clusters and how those definitions shape the capacity of clusters to alleviate poverty. I am particularly interested in looking at cluster-related policies that originate with a focus on shared labor pools as a way of ensuring that development dollars are spent to the advantage of a local workforce.

My personal research agenda employs agent-based models to contribute to debates on the disciplinary border between geography and economics. My work points to an important role for the imperfect operation of markets in persistent inequality among cities. These models, like the economic models they seek to engage with, incorporate the role that distance between cities plays in shaping economic outcomes in those cities. I have demonstrated in my published work that space can play a complex role in differentiating economic outcomes among cities and that it is precisely the uneven development brought on by imperfect mobility of capital and labor that drives system dynamics in this case.

In support of my research on local economic development policies I have also undertaken detailed case studies of port cities where the implementation of competitive policies has played an important role in local policy discourse. These case studies focus on the complex relationships among discourse, individual preferences, political organizations, and economic rationality in shaping the local distribution of resources and the position of cities within global networks. In addition to being useful case studies in their own right, this work is closely linked to my modeling efforts providing hypotheses for testing and incorporation as I seek to build on existing models that take a purely economic view of competition among cities.

Finally, I have developed two lines of research on segregation in collaboration with Professor Amy Glasmeier at MIT (on segregation and the "creative class") and in collaboration with Professor Mark Ellis at the University of Washington (segregation and mixed race households).

This page primarily serves as an access point for information about my research and teaching, and secondarily, as a repository of photos and trip reports.