In November 2014, the Center hosted the conference “Poverty and
Place,” which focused on the implications of geography and
population density have for poverty. This conference brought
together a unique mix of researchers, policy professionals and
industry leaders to discuss their work studying the people,
geography, and the safety net as it relates to persistent
poverty.
Ann Stevens is Director of the Center for Poverty Research
at UC Davis, Economics Professor and Interim Dean at the Graduate
School of Management. She studies low income workers and labor
markets, the incidence and effects of job loss, connections
between economic shocks and health, and poverty and safety-net
dynamics. Stevens previously served on the faculty at Rutgers and
Yale Universities and is a faculty research associate with the
National Bureau of Economic Research.
Scott W. Allard is a Professor at the Daniel J. Evans School
of Public Affairs at the University of Washington with expertise
in social welfare policy, federalism and intergovernmental
relationships, and urban policy. Allard is a nonresidential
senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy
Program and co-director of the Family Self-Sufficiency Data
Center at the University of Chicago Review.
Jennifer Sherman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at
Washington State University. Her research looks at the
interactions of economic conditions, cultural norms, and family
outcomes, particularly in rural areas. Sherman focuses on
families experiencing poverty and low incomes in order to
understand the ways in which their choices and decisions are
impacted by economic constraints and community contexts.
Sheryl-Ann Simpson is an Assistant Professor of Human
Ecology at the University of California, Davis. Her research
interests span a variety of urban issues, including immigration,
housing, and urban health. The connective thread in all of her
work is an interest in the voices, experience, and ideas of
individuals and communities that have been historically excluded
(or marginalized) in the decision-making processes around their
homes.
Kai Schafft is an Associate Professor of Education in the
College of Education at Pennsylvania State University and the
director of Penn State’s Center on Rural Education and
Communities. Trained as a rural sociologist, his work focuses
broadly on the intersection between social inequality and spatial
inequality. His major areas of research include the
interrelationship between rural poverty and student transiency,
contexts for rural youth development, farm-to-school program
implementation, and rural health outcomes.
Evelyn Blumenberg is a Professor and Chair of Urban Planning
at the University of California, Los Angeles. Blumenberg’s
research examines the effects of urban structure–the spatial
location of residents, employment, and services–on economic
outcomes for low-wage workers, and on the role of planning and
policy in shaping the spatial structure of cities.
Deb Niemeier is a Professor of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at the University of California, Davis. Her research
interests focus on transportation-air quality modeling, energy
consumption and land use interactions, sustainability and the
project development process for major infrastructure projects.
She is the Director for the Sustainable Design Academy at UC
Davis and has just completed a 6-year term as Editor-in-Chief of
Transportation Research, Part A, the leading international
journal focused on transportation policy and practice.
Jonathan London is an Assistant Professor of Human and
Community Development at the University of California, Davis and
a Faculty Affiliate of the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research.
His research addresses conflicts and collaboration in natural
resource and environmental issues, specifically on marginalized
rural communities and environmental justice issues in the Sierra
Nevada and the Central Valley.
Victoria Lawson is a Professor of Geography at the
University of Washington. Lawson is the co-founder of the
Relational Poverty Network (with Sarah Elwood); Past-President of
the Association of American Geographers (AAG); Marsha Landolt
Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award winner; Director of the UW
Honors Program, former Chair of the Department of Geography at
the University of Washington, and committed teacher.
Adrienne Hosek is an Assistant Professor in the Department
of Political Science at the University of California, Davis.
Hosek’s research focuses on income inequality and redistributive
politics in the United States, the statistics of causal
inference, and survey experimentation.
Bruce Haynes is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the
University of California, Davis. He is an authority on race,
ethnicity, and urban communities. His publications
include The Ghetto: Contemporary Issues and
Controversies, a co-edited volume that brings together
prominent scholars throughout the world to examine marginalized
urban spaces and the usefulness of the concept, and term,
“ghetto.”
Jesus Hernandez is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at
the University of California, Davis.
