research agenda
Planners continually struggle with how to engage our public better and how to use technology in meaningful and equitable ways in decision making. These challenges are at the core of my research. I am interested in the process of planning and planning theory and how that informs a) what technology we use b) how we use it and c) if it changes the way we work.
I am currently investigating these issues through three main points of inquiry:
1) How can we use big data and new analytical tools for long-range planning for communities and regions?
2) How can we design public engagement processes that influence planning outcomes and create opportunities for learning?
3) How are online social engagement tools changing the composition and deliberative characteristics of public engagement?
past research experience
school of city & regional planning, Georgia Tech
The collection, sharing, and analysis of data permeates planning research, scholarship and practice. A primary focus of big data in planning is in how it can be used to improve transportation and land use modeling and optimizing short-term planning interventions. We examined how we planning schools can prepare our students to analyze big data and how data collection and sharing can be organized to lead to more productive and collaborative governance and research. This work was partially funded by an NSF grant to host a workshop on acquiring and sharing data. Along with co-PIs Steve French and Peter Voorhees, we analyzed responses from working groups, prepared case studies on data clearinghouses, and made recommendations for future policies and programs. Results of this workshop and associated research are included in the paper Designing a Data Commons for Urban Big Data, presented at the Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management Conference in 2017. Other papers related to this topic include Moving beyond Operations: Leveraging Big Data for Urban Planning Decisions and How Should Urban Planners be Trained to Handle Big Data? in the edited volume Seeing Cities through Big Data (2016).
Food & Agriculture Organization, the UNITED NATIONS
Contributed to the case study development for the paper Less-Favoured Areas: Looking Beyond Agriculture Towards Ecosystem Services. Part of the edited volume, Sustainable poverty reduction in less-favoured areas (2007).
Lipper, L., Pingali, P., & Zurek, M. (2007). Less-favoured areas: looking beyond agriculture towards ecosystem services. Sustainable poverty reduction in less-favoured areas. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, 442-460.
department of Natural resources, cornell university
Worked with Louise Buck to contribute to work published on Ecoagriculture.