Greetings!
Thank you for visiting my site. Currently, I serve as the Director of the Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy (ESE) at Northern Illinois University, where I'm fortunate to serve a highly collaborative, passionate, and interdisciplinary group of five jointly-appointed faculty, 30 faculty associates, affiliated doctoral students, and nearly 100 undergraduate majors. ESE is the home of Environmental Studies, NIU's only cross-college interdisciplinary undergraduate degree. Our highly successful students can emphasize in Environmental Justice, Environmental Policy and Law, Sustainable Food Systems, Biodiversity and Environmental Restoration, and Sustainable Operations.
This year, I'm thankful for the support of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which is sponsoring our inaugural class of undergraduate and graduate research fellows. The students' work will have $56 million in impact on Illinois communities by helping them acquire and develop parks and open spaces. We are also excited to join our faculty in celebrating promotions to full professor, book publications, awards of funding, and high-impact engagement with communities, And, as always, we will be celebrating a long list of student successes both within and beyond the classroom over the course of the coming year. I invite you to learn more about us!
I'm also an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University, where I help coordinate our globally renowned specialization in Local Government Management (ranked #3 nationally by U.S. News and World Report) and Public Service Law and Management. I teach Master of Public Administration courses in law, planning and zoning, new governance, and performance management.
My research has received over $1.3 million in external funding from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, U.S. Department of Transportation, Regional Studies Association, and Illinois Innovation Network. I focus on decision-making by and among local government managers, administrators, and elected officials as they tackle major policy problems, especially those that arise in sustainable infrastructure systems. You can read more about my research here. My scholarship has been published by Routledge, and can be found in Land Use Policy, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Cities, and Journal of Urban Affairs.
Please get in touch with me if you're interested in collaborating or in having me share my passion and knowledge with the public through a community meeting, media engagement, or any other avenue.