University of Maryland, College Park

Graduate Student, Urban and Regional Planning and Design

PhD Candidate

School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Thesis Title: How innovation networks, patents and technology affect job growth: designing new policies for smaller manufacturing regions

About

I am PhD Candidate and a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) with over twenty years of community and economic development related experience as a practitioner.  A strategic thinker and planner, I am entrepreneurial by nature and enjoy complex problems and projects. 

My research interests focus on the spatial, social and technological dimensions and dynamics of industrial development and their implications for planning, economic development and sustainability.  Within this broader area of interest there are three specific topics that I find interesting and relevant.  The first topic is a more general statement of my dissertation topic, which is the social, spatial and technological dynamics of innovation and economic transformation in older manufacturing regions.  Put simply, how do we plan for and facilitate the transition of the rust belt to new high-wage manufacturing in a global economy?  The second topic tends to focus on the same regions but is concerned with the history of industrial development, how it has shaped the spatial organization of places, and how communities deal with its legacies.  Again, in simple terms, how do communities plan for appropriate industrial land use, revitalize and redevelop brownfields, and integrate better public health criteria into their planning decisions?  The third topic looks broadly at industrial development, sustainability, energy and climate change as a kind of primordial stew from which the 21st century will come to be defined.  This topic is generally informed by the first two but is more open ended and exploratory at this point.

Contact Information