I am currently serving as Distinguished Lecturer of City Planning at San Diego State University School of Public Affairs and Visiting Scholar at the San Diego State University Institute for Innovative Governance.

My research focuses on environmental and social influences of neighborhood well being as well as land use policies that aim to improve community health. I use spatial modeling and analysis of the built environment to better understand how communities come to support land use policies that improve the quality of life and well being of local residents. I am particularly interested in access to food and exposure to harmful messaging via outdoor advertising.

Recent projects include:

Research into the impact of emerging cannabis based economies on the well being of communities to inform public policy related to cannabis dispensary availability and advertising, including:

Neighborhood Sociodemographic Correlates of Cannabis Dispensary Availability in States with Legalized Adult Recreational Use, United States, 2021.

Outdoor Medical Cannabis Advertising in Oklahoma: Examining Regulatory Compliance and Social Meanings in Billboard Content

Seeing is Believing: How cannabis marketing exposure is associated with cannabis use attitudes and behavior in a permissive medical cannabis policy environment

Research into the ways that food availability and access influence the health of neighborhoods to provide guidance on the development of public policy to address food insecurity, including:

Societal Transformation Through Social Entrepreneurial Action Research, Integrating transit data and travel time into food security analysis: A case study of San Diego, California

Mapping EBT Store Closures During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Low-Income, Food-Insecure Community in San Diego.

Integrating Transit Data and Travel Time into Food Security Analysis: A case study of San Diego, California

I also recently completed, Understanding Housing Insecurity in Oklahoma: identifying gaps and assets. In cooperation with the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency, the University of Oklahoma Zarrow School of Social Work, and the Institute for Quality Communities, we interviewed housing service providers and individuals with lived experience being unhoused, curated data on unhoused and housing insecure Oklahomans, and mapped services and assets as part of the allocation plan for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development HOME American Rescue Plan Funding.

My research appears in the American Journal of Public Health, Applied Geography, Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, Environment and Planning B, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Wayfinding and Signage, the Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Planning History, Substance Use and Misuse, Preventing Chronic Disease, among others.