Affiliated Faculty and Collaborators
The affiliated faculty and collaborators of the IUR are those scholars, journalists, and policy practitioners who have partnered on at least one project or publication of the IUR in the last five years.
Urban Research Scholars
" St. Louis Currents Authors"
Mark Abbott is a professor of history at Harris-Stowe State University and the director of the Center for Neighborhood Affairs. In addition, he is an adjunct instructor at Saint Louis University in the Department of Public Policy Studies and provides consulting assistance to community organizations in terms of grant writing, neighborhood planning and program evaluation. He is the president of the St. Louis Metropolitan Section of the American Planning Association. Abbott is currently working on a history of the Tower Grove neighborhood.
Stanley D. Brown is president of the Gateway Chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America. He is a medically retired Colonel, JAGC, U.S. Army, injured in an automobile accident in 1996 that rendered him a quadriplegic. He has a BA from the University of Oklahoma, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and an MBA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Prior to his injury, he worked with the court systems in St. Louis County and City of St. Louis and as Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections. He is currently an adjunct legal studies professor at Webster University and has published in the Journal of the Missouri Bar and Missouri Bar Deskbooks, as well as the American Corrections Association Corrections Today. He has written several columns on disability issues in the Paralyzed Veterans of America PN/Paraplegia News and served three years on the Missouri Governor's Council on Disability.
Sarah L. Coffin an associate professor at Saint Louis University in the Department of Public Policy Studies where she advises the Urban Planning and Real Estate Development Program. She has extensive background in developing information systems as decision tools. Specifically, she has developed indicator projects used to promote brownfield redevelopment in distressed neighborhoods and a system for evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of development tools. Her research interests include examining the impacts of brownfield, vacant properties, and more recently, housing foreclosures on weak market economies and whether new ways of framing the redevelopment question might provide positive benefits for distressed communities. Additionally, Coffin is interested in understanding the connections between the green economy and global climate change policy. Specifically, she is exploring ways that the green collar jobs sector might work as a sustainable economic development strategy for weak market, former industrial cities. Prior to arriving in St. Louis, she spent two years at the University of Louisville working for the US EPA's Environmental Finance Center in Region 4 as a ost doctoral researcher. While there she developed a brownfield information system for the Metro Louisville Government's brownfield program. Coffin holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master's in Urban Planning, Design and Development from the Maxine Goodman Levin Cleveland State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Lake Erie College.
Ron Coleman has over 38 years experience in conservation, environmental projects, parks and recreation, and trails in Missouri. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region. A veteran of the United States Marine Corp, Coleman holds an M.S. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His professional and volunteer work with land and water conservation has earned local, state and national recognition. He was recognized as a Missouri Water Conservationist of the Year for his leadership in the restoration of the Meramec River Basin and for his involvement in parks management he has received a Missouri Parks and Recreation Fellow Award, the highest form of professional recognition in his field. He was named the Conservationist of the Year by the St. Louis Audubon Society in 2004 and was honored as the Missouri Conservationist of the Year in 2005 by the Conservation Federation of Missouri.
Robert W. Duffy is associate editor of the St. Louis Beacon, a new online regional news publication. He began his career in the news business in 1955 when he took a job delivering the Arkansas Gazette in his hometown, Little Rock. He joined the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1973 and worked there, with one brief interruption, for 32 years. He served as reporter, critic, columnist, editorial writer and editor during his tenure at the paper, and spent time in every department of the newsroom except sports. He was a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes for photography in 1978 and '79. In addition to the Post-Dispatch, articles by him have appeared in national magazines such as U.S. News and World Report, Smithsonian and Modernism, and he has contributed essays or chapters to several books on architectural and urban-design subjects. He is a member of the faculties of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, and is a 1967 graduate of the University's College of Arts and Sciences. He serves on the board of the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute (of which he is secretary) and the advisory board of the New City School. He has two sons, both teachers. He lives with his partner, Martin Kaplan, in the Central West End of St. Louis.
James D. Evans is the president of Lindenwood University. He joined Lindenwood's faculty as a psychology professor in 1974. He became dean of social science in 1994 and dean of the school of sciences and mathematics one year later. Evans was named dean of faculty in 1996, provost in 2000, and president in 2007. He had served on the faculties of Geneva College and Iowa State University prior to coming to Lindenwood. Evans received his Ph.D. in research psychology from Iowa State University in 1974; his M.S. in psychology from Iowa State University in 1969; and his B.S. in psychology from Geneva College in 1968.
Laura Milsk Fowler received her B.A. from University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. in public and american history from Loyola University Chicago. Her dissertation, "Meet Me at the Station: The Culture and Aesthetics of Chicago's Railroad Terminals, 1871-1930," examined the urban culture and public space of Chicago's six downtown railroad terminals. Since 2003, she has been an assistant professor of history and director of the Museum Studies Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She teaches history of Illinois, museum studies and 20th-century American history. She is currently working on revising her dissertation for publication and on Southwestern Illinois immigration history.
Susan K. Glassman is executive vice president of Urban Strategies, a not-for-profit corporation that works with its development partner, McCormack Baron Salazar to rebuild distressed urban core communities into vibrant, safe residential neighborhoods with good schools, strong institutions and a range of human service supports and amenities. Glassman is responsible for leadership and technical assistance in comprehensive community development efforts that connect human services, neighborhood school enhancements and economic development support to the physical redevelopment of communities. She also oversees Urban Strategies' corporate training and communications programs, both internal and external. Prior to joining Urban Strategies, Glassman was CEO of the American Lung Association of Eastern Missouri, responsible for directing all activities and increasing the revenue by 43 percent. Her strong management background includes leadership positions with the City of University City, Mo., where she earned national recognition for innovative programs to encourage development, rehabilitation and continuing racial and economic diversity. Glassman has held lecturer positions at Eastern Michigan University, Hong Kong Baptist College and Taiwan National University. She is the Board president of St. Louis Artworks. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the University City Public Library and the Grant Allocations Committee of the Incarnate Word Foundation. Glassman earned an M.A. in urban affairs from Washington University in St. Louis; an M.A. in English from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor; and a B.A. in English and social science from City College of New York.
Nicholas Guehlstorf is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and the Environmental Sciences program at SIUE. Generally, his research focuses on the integration of democratic values into environmental policy by considering the theoretical problems with citizen involvement, economic development, and the effect of scientific information on decision making. Guehlstorf 's Springer published book, The Political Theories of Risk Analysis, offers a broad explanation of environmental democracy. Specifically, his scholarship has examined the practical policy considerations environmental democracy has for genetically modified food regulations, sustainable farming practices, Brownfield redevelopment programs and wetland laws. Some of this work has been published in peer reviewed journals such as Environmental Science and Policy and the Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Ethics.
Bob Hansman received his BFA (drawing and painting, English literature, religious studies) from the University of Kansas in 1970 and has been milking that little BFA for all it's worth ever since. Highlights of his college years were meeting Coretta Scott King and Bobby Kennedy and getting beaten up by members of the Ku Klux Klan, and ever since then he has been making up his life as it goes based on the lessons he learned then. Much to his own surprise, he wound up an associate professor in the Washington University School of Architecture (now part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts), where, in addition to teaching studio and drawing courses, he has developed a course-Community Building, Building Community--that brings Washington University students and members of the Wellston Loop / Ward 22 communities together to discover opportunities for shared personal and community involvement. In 1994 he founded and still co-directs (with his adopted son, Jovan) City Faces, a year-round art and mentorship program for kids living in "the projects" downtown; Jovan was one of the kids in the program that first year. For his teaching at Washington University, Hansman received an Emerson Electric Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000 and a Washington University Founders Day Distinguished Faculty Award in 2001. For the City Faces program, he was included in Coming Up Taller, a publication of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in 1996 and received a Missouri Arts Award in 1997. He also received a Washington University Bob and Gerry Virgil Ethic of Service Award in 2005, and Mr. Hansman and Jovan together received a FOCUS St. Louis "What's Right With The Region!" Award in 2008.
Shelley Houk earned her Master of Arts in English and American literature at SIUE, where she is currently an instructor in English. Her research interests include contemporary feminist literature and urban studies. She serves as an associate coordinator for The Poetry Correspondence Program, a letter-writing, poetry sharing initiative, and she is co-director of Southern Illinois Along the Lightrail, a humanities project that utilizes a transportation system as the focal point. Soon, she will be moving to Chicago.
James Ingram is a columnist for the St. Louis American newspaper. The Boston University alumnus is also head writer for InBox Magazine and Ohhmy Online. In addition, James is a graduate of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Learning Lab and Change Leadership Program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. The East St. Louis, Ill., native has also written for the East St. Louis Monitor, was featured in the documentary Bloody Island, which chronicles East St. Louis Race Riots of 1917 and served as Press Secretary to former East St. Louis Mayor Carl E. Officer. Mr. Ingram is a former panelist for Spectrum (KETC-TV, St. Louis) and has hosted radio talk shows on KWK Radio (St. Louis), KATZ Radio (St. Louis) and WESL Radio (East St. Louis).
E. Terrence Jones is professor of political science and public policy administration at the University of Missouri- St. Louis. His books include The Metropolitan Chase and Fragmented By Design. He has been a consultant to over seventy governments and non-profit organizations in the St. Louis region and, for twenty years, was the principal consultant for the Leadership St. Louis Program.
Charles Kindleberger is an adjunct professor in Public Policy Studies at St. Louis University, Kindleberger is a retired city planner having worked for St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis during a 35 period. Kindleberger serves on the boards of Visions for Children at Risk, the Peace Economy Project and St. Louis Artworks. He is also currently chair of the Focus St. Louis Implementation Committee on Disaster Preparation and is active in the Mentor St. Louis program. He has a BA in political science from the University of Pennsylvania (1962) and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Pittsburgh (1967).
Jeremy W. Main is a Ph.D. graduate of the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. His research interests include community development, urban and metropolitan governance, and public policy. He has conducted research on neighborhood redevelopment in Saint Louis and currently serves on the board of directors of Jubilee Christian Development Corporation, a faith-based CDC serving his north Saint Louis neighborhood. Using a mix of quantitative analyses and comparative case studies, his dissertation examines how political fragmentation and local institutions have shaped patterns of and responses to suburban poverty and physical/economic decline in the Saint Louis, Cleveland, and Baltimore metropolitan areas from 1970 to the present. The research will pay particular attention to explaining the variegated landscape of contemporary local governing capacities and will provide a critical reappraisal of both the potential and limits of structural reform, institutional development, and civic capacity building for addressing the dispersal of decline in U.S. metropolitan areas.
Richard Mark joined Ameren Corporation in 2002, serving first as vice president of customer service and then assuming responsibility for governmental policy. In 2005, he was promoted to senior vice president, energy delivery, with responsibility for delivering electricity and natural gas to 1.2 million Missouri customers. Before joining Ameren, Mark spent six years as president and CEO of St. Mary's Hospital of East St. Louis, where he is credited with returning the institution to financial health and improving city residents' access to healthcare. Mark serves on the boards of the several community and business organizations and has received numerous awards and honors for his executive leadership and service.
Debra H. Moore is executive director of the St. Clair County Intergovernmental Grants Department. She is a former assistant professor of political science at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She received the Ph.D. in political science from the University of Missouri St. Louis. She also completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Moore has extensive public policy experience and has worked with diverse groups to address issues of regional concern. She has led or participated in the development of organizations that have promoted cooperation between government and the private sector; and the development of regional approaches to problems facing the St. Louis metropolitan area.
Alan Ortbals is co-owner, vice president and Chief Operating Officer of the Illinois Business Journal. The IBJ focuses on business news, issues and trends affecting Southwestern Illinois. It's been publishing for more than 8 years and has a circulation of 20,500. Before going into the newspaper business, Ortbals spent nearly 20 years in economic development in the St. Louis region, starting as a commercial district manager for the St. Louis Office of Business Development; moving on to become Granite City, Illinois' first economic development director; and then executive director of the Southwestern Illinois Development Authority. He began his career as a teacher and school administrator. Ortbals holds degrees from St. Louis University and Webster University.
Howard Rambsy II teaches literature courses at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He writes about African American literary art, modern publishing trends and the convergence of race and technology. He has also produced several visual-literary exhibits. He became the coordinator for the East St. Louis Action Research project in 2013.
Ted Shekell serves as planning director for the City of O'Fallon, Ill., since 1997, and is responsible for coordinating the City's work in comprehensive land use planning, zoning, annexations, and subdivision and development review, including development exactions and open space dedications. He served on the St. Louis Metro APA Section Executive Board from 2000-2004 and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. From 1992-1997, he served as executive director of the Southern Five Regional Planning Commission located at Ullin, Ill., providing assistance to 23 municipalities and five counties with their economic development, public infrastructure, housing rehabilitation, and land use planning projects. He has a bachelor of science in geography from Penn State University and a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Virginia.
Thomas R. Shrout, Jr. is the retired executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit, a not-for-profit organization composed of some 1500 volunteers representing a cross section of St. Louis businesses, academic institutions, not-for-profits and individuals. Founded in 1985, CMT successfully launched a grassroots effort to establish the St. Louis MetroLink light rail system that opened July 31, 1993 and has expanded twice with a 17 miles in May 2002 to Scott Air Force Base in Southwest Illinois and in 2006 with an 8-mile extension in St. Louis County. Shrout is a frequent speaker about the benefits of a good rail transit and has worked with cities across the country working to build support for rail systems. He is on the national steering committee of the Rail~Volution Conference which is focused on building livable communities with rail transit. For its work under Shrout's leadership to improve transit in St. Louis, CMT was recognized as the 1994 recipient of the "Sold on St. Louis Award." The St. Louis Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America selected Shrout as its 1994 recipient of the Lamplighter award. Shrout is a 1970 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. During college he worked in broadcast journalism. He formerly was a reporter for the Associated Press in New York City. Prior to coming to CMT, he worked for 15 years at Truman State University, winning numerous awards for marketing and public affairs. Shrout is active in civic affairs. He served as president of the St. Louis Family Support Network which works for the prevention of Child Abuse. In 1990 he was appointed to the Board of Governors of Truman University where he served as secretary and President of the board. He serves as the citizens representative on of the Missouri Public Transit Association Board of Directors. He is vice chairman of the board of his neighborhood association. Shrout lives in the Central West End of St. Louis with his wife, Debbie, director of the St. Louis Campus of Columbia College.
Kris Runberg Smith is an associate professor of history at Lindenwood University. She was director of education at the Missouri Historical Society and also worked for the Ohio Historical Society and the Kansas State Historical Society. She has a B.A. in Museum Science from the University of Idaho, a M.A. in American History from Washington State University, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Saint Louis University. She has taught St. Louis history at Webster and Washington universities. She has proudly resided in St. Louis' Shaw neighborhood.
Les Sterman is the former executive director of East-West Gateway Council of Governments. Les has a B.S.C.E. in Civil Engineering and a M.S. in Urban and Environmental Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Les worked as a transportation planning consultant and civil engineer prior to his current position with the Council. After joining East-West Gateway in May 1978 as Director of Transportation Planning, Les was appointed Executive Director in 1983. Les is directly responsible for some of the Council's largest and most visible projects, including conceiving and planning the MetroLink light rail system. Most recently, Les has moved East-West Gateway to reach out beyond its traditional role in the development of physical infrastructure to focus attention on important community issues like racial and economic disparity that undermine the economic prosperity of the region. He has been an active spokesman for metropolitan transportation, community development and environmental issues on the state and national level, and he has testified before several congressional committees and spoken to many national conferences on these subjects. Les has been President of the Missouri Association of Councils of Government; Co-Chair and Founding Member of the National Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations; Member, Executive Committee, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences; and Member, Steering Committee, Surface Transportation Policy Project. He has chaired the Government Division of the United Way Campaign and has served on the boards of many local community and civic groups including St. Louis for Kids, the Jewish Federation, the Downtown Children's Center, Downtown St. Louis, Inc. and RegionWise. Les' principal areas of interest are in the development of healthy, sustainable communities and metropolitan regions, and in shaping metropolitan scale public policy through the cooperative action of local governments. He has written articles for a number of local and national publications.
Pat Sullivan is the executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri. He has been with the HBA in various capacities since 1980. While with the HBA, he has served on numerous local and regional boards, committees and task forces associated with a variety of local governments to represent the housing industry's viewpoint on public policy issues. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors and Executive Committees of Lindenwood University and Youth In Need. The HBA is a not-for-profit trade association whose members are businesses, which are involved in the home building industry. The HBA's basic mission is to help the private sector meet the housing demand for as many people as possible.
Todd Swanstrom is the E. Desmond Lee Professor in Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and has a Ph.D. from Princeton University in Politics. Professor Swanstrom is co-author of Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-first Century, rev. ed. (University Press of Kansas, 2005), which examines the relationship between urban decline and suburban sprawl. He is currently doing research on responses to foreclosures in six metropolitan areas and efforts to open up construction jobs to women and minorities. He is a member of the MacArthur Foundation's Building Resilient Regions Network which is working to build the field of regional studies. Jeremy W. Main is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. His research interests include community development, urban and metropolitan governance, and public policy. He has conducted research on neighborhood redevelopment in Saint Louis and currently serves on the board of directors of Jubilee Christian Development Corporation, a faith-based CDC serving his north Saint Louis neighborhood. Using a mix of quantitative analyses and comparative case studies, his dissertation examines how political fragmentation and local institutions have shaped patterns of and responses to suburban poverty and physical/economic decline in the Saint Louis, Cleveland, and Baltimore metropolitan areas from 1970 to the present. The research will pay particular attention to explaining the variegated landscape of contemporary local governing capacities and will provide a critical reappraisal of both the potential and limits of structural reform, institutional development, and civic capacity building for addressing the dispersal of decline in U.S. metropolitan areas.
Andrew Theising is an associate professor of political science at SIUE, where he serves as director of the SIUE Institute for Urban Research. His teaching and research interests are in industrial suburbs, economic development, and institutional behavior. His research has been used by media nationwide, including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and Swiss Television. He is the author of the award-winning book Made in USA: East St. Louis-The Rise and Fall of an Industrial River Town (Virginia Publishing, 2003), which was made into an Emmy-winning public television documentary. He received his masters and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Theising enjoys local history; his family has lived in the St. Louis region for over 150 years.
Mark Tranel is the director of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Public Policy Research Center and research associate professor of public policy administration. Tranel served as principal investigator on over 60 applied research projects since joining the University in 1990. He is the editor of St. Louis Plans, the third volume in the St. Louis Metromorphosis series. His work has been published in the Journal of Urban Affairs and National Civic Review. His doctorate in public policy analysis and administration is from St. Louis University.
Nikki Weinstein is the director of policy and community engagement at FOCUS St. Louis. Her career of in nonprofits working on community engagement and development programs shows a strong commitment to social and economic justice. She has extensive experience in facilitation of community meetings, strategic planning sessions, task force work, and is a certified mediator. She has created and conducted trainings and workshops for community residents, volunteers, and other professionals. An effective collaborator and negotiator, she has worked extensively with diverse communities and is skilled at building relationships with all segments of those communities. Her current work at FOCUS St. Louis includes implementing policy research report recommendations on the issues of workforce housing and immigrant education. This has led to successful lobbying efforts to preserve higher education opportunities for all immigrant students. She has also created a roundtable of community organizations supporting the educational outcomes of immigrant students in the region. She oversees the implementation of a three year public education campaign on workforce housing and is working to establish a sustainable workforce housing policy coalition. Weinstein's Community Engagement portfolio at FOCUS includes establishment and facilitation of the St. Louis Young Professionals Collaborative made up of more than 40 organizations in the region. She also implements a regional dialogue program this year focusing on the intersection between affordable housing, public transportation and jobs. Prior to joining FOCUS St. Louis, she worked for the Family Resource Center. She developed and implemented mentoring programs for youth. Her oversight of the projects included budget management, staff supervision, and volunteer training. Prior to her work at the Family Resource Center, she worked at the St. Louis Neighborhood Network under a grant to promote a community approach to keeping children safe, strengthening families, and building communities. She implemented and coordinated projects that included a wide variety of stakeholders including residents, social service providers, churches, and businesses. Her international experience includes a summer internship with the Center for Community Studies in Ghana, West Africa and academic engagements in Poland, Israel, and Mexico. She holds a bachelor of science in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Master of Social Work from Washington University and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has taught social worker courses at Washington University and University of Missouri-St. Louis. Weinstein also serves on the Board of Directors for Joint Neighborhood Ministries, the Accra Foundation for Intercultural Communication and Awareness, Cornett's Closet, The Brown School Alumni Board, and for the Worker's Rights Board of Jobs with Justice.
Bryan Werner, a planner for the Metro East Park and Recreation District in Collinsville, Ill., helps coordinate planning, implementation, management and administration for numerous regional projects the District is currently tackling. He has served in this position for the last four years. Werner holds a bachelor's in Computer Management Information Systems and a Master of Public Administration and Policy Analysis from SIUE.
Janet Wilding, deputy director for administration for The Great Rivers Greenway District (GRG), served as project manager on behalf of GRG for the construction of the McKinley Bridge Bikeway, Branch Street Trestle and Riverfront Trail development projects. As one of GRG's original staff, Wilding assisted in creating the vision and framework that currently guides the organization's work. Her background includes 17 years in the public sector working in a wide variety of public policy initiatives, from political campaign work and congressional staffing to neighborhood housing advocacy, brownfield redevelopment and municipal annexation and incorporations. Wilding has a BA in economics from St. Louis University.
