I am currently an Associate Professor of Regional + City Planning at the University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture where I teach food systems planning, geographic information systems, and herban planning: policy and land use for cannabis.

This fall I’ll be teaching a new course, Public Health and the Built Environment.

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.

I recently started a new project with colleagues at San Diego State University School of Public Affairs and Fowler College of Business investigating food insecurity, including: Integrating transit data and travel time into food security analysis: A case study of San Diego, California and Mapping EBT Store Closures During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Low-Income, Food-Insecure Community in San Diego.

I am also currently leading a project, 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, the team is interviewing service providers, curating data on unhoused and housing insecure Oklahomans, and mapping 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 Applied Geography, the American Journal of Public Health, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Wayfinding and Signage, the Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Planning History, and Preventing Chronic Disease, among others.