I am an associate professor in the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. There, I co-direct the Metropolitan Governance and Management Transitions Laboratory, which focuses on the collective-action challenges surrounding community resilience and sustainability.
Science has always presented its protagonists with epistemic challenges rooted in language and the difficulties establishing what Vincent Ostrom called "communities of shared understanding." Our work attempts to answer that call by focusing on different types of "shared" public infrastructure, from pipes in the ground to the knowledge that resource users and providers develop and mobilize to solve problems. Local governments of all sizes are facing increasing threats to their fiscal and economic health, community well-being, and environmental resources. Addressing these challenges requires a litany of economic, ecological and societal governance transitions. It also assumes local communities can either develop new organizational capacities or divert resources away from more traditional services and activities. And it requires that scientists across disciplines forge a shared understanding of the problems and ways for advancing solutions.
Currently, our lab is doing so by investigating capacity-related challenges surrounding the implementation and evaluation of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. You can read my book on these general topics (open access) here: "Organizing and Institutionalizing Local Sustainability.' In the past, I have studied the intergovernmental performance issues surrounding the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program funded by Congress in 2009, the reform of growth management regulations in Florida, citizen perceptions of local government environmental and social programs, and the cognitive biases of citizens and public managers related to climate-mitigation and social equity policies. I was also a Graduate Research Fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), where I focused on cities and sustainable water management.
Science has always presented its protagonists with epistemic challenges rooted in language and the difficulties establishing what Vincent Ostrom called "communities of shared understanding." Our work attempts to answer that call by focusing on different types of "shared" public infrastructure, from pipes in the ground to the knowledge that resource users and providers develop and mobilize to solve problems. Local governments of all sizes are facing increasing threats to their fiscal and economic health, community well-being, and environmental resources. Addressing these challenges requires a litany of economic, ecological and societal governance transitions. It also assumes local communities can either develop new organizational capacities or divert resources away from more traditional services and activities. And it requires that scientists across disciplines forge a shared understanding of the problems and ways for advancing solutions.
Currently, our lab is doing so by investigating capacity-related challenges surrounding the implementation and evaluation of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. You can read my book on these general topics (open access) here: "Organizing and Institutionalizing Local Sustainability.' In the past, I have studied the intergovernmental performance issues surrounding the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program funded by Congress in 2009, the reform of growth management regulations in Florida, citizen perceptions of local government environmental and social programs, and the cognitive biases of citizens and public managers related to climate-mitigation and social equity policies. I was also a Graduate Research Fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), where I focused on cities and sustainable water management.
