Metropolitan Governance and Management Transitions
Local government managers play a unique and often poorly understood role in responding to problems such as suburban sprawl, pollution, poverty concentration, and infrastructure decline. I am a social scientist and assistant professor in the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. At O'Neill, I direct the Metropolitan Governance and Management Transitions (MGMT) Laboratory, which is focused on ways to build cumulative knowledge which can help local governments advance sustainable development. My research has appeared in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Urban Studies, Policy Studies Journal, Global Environmental Change and other outlets. In 2018, I was awarded the Clarence Stone Scholar Award by the Local and Urban Politics section of the American Political Science Association. I have also watched state and local policy processes from different professional vantage points. Prior to changing careers, I worked as a government reporter for 15 years. During that time, I covered city councils, school boards, state legislatures and state and national political campaigns in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Florida for news organizations including The Kansas City Star, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Gannett News Service and the Orlando Sentinel.