Research Areas

My research areas focus on rural poverty, industry clusters, entrepreneurship, and effective rural development. My work on poverty looks at how person-based and place-based characteristics interact with a labor market to determine the chances of a person being poor. My work on industry clusters looks at how competitive industries share inputs within a regional economy, specifically looking at shared suppliers and labor. My work on entrepreneurship looks at measuring the socioeconomic characteristics of self-employed person and their communities; and also looking at the economic characteristics of high growth firms and the demographic characteristics of the firm’s owners. Lastly, my work on rural development looks at why certain communities are better at using their resource endowments (natural, economic, demographic, geographic, etc.) to promote development than other similar communities.

Extension Activities

My extension work is focused on providing applied research products and services in the area of rural economic and community development.  Specifically, this includes: economic base analysis, targeted economic development services, industry cluster analysis, workforce and skill-gap analyses, economic and fiscal impact analyses, demographic analyses, and training in regional economics topics.  This work also involves working cooperatively with Nebraska communities, local government, and state officials and elected officials.

Education and Experience

Ph.D. awarded by the University of Missouri - Columbia in 2006, with the dissertation Understanding Rural Poverty Clusters: The Intersection of Agriculture, Economic Structure and Locality Under Postindustrialism.  M.S. also awarded by the University of Missouri - Columbia in 1998.  B.S. conferred cum laude from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in 1994.  Studied urban and regional affairs at the University of Oslo in Norway in 1993.

Prior to joining the UNL faculty, I worked for six years with the research division of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, providing applied research products and technical and policy support to state and local economic development officials, the Missouri General Assembly, and local workforce investment boards.  Prior to this, I worked for three years as a research analyst for the Rural Policy Research Institute and the Community Policy Analysis Center at the University of Missouri - Columbia.