Laura Reese Ph.D
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
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Laura A. Reese is Professor of Political Science and the founding Director of the Global Urban Studies Program (GUSP) at Michigan State University. The Global Urban Studies Program at Michigan State University strives to increase knowledge about processes, policies, and issues in urban areas across the world, emphasizing global processes that impact and unite urban areas. It also endeavors to improve urban conditions though rigorous graduate education and innovative interdisciplinary research. Dr. Reese’s main research and teaching areas are in urban politics and public policy, economic development, and local governance and management in Canada and the US. She has conducted large scale evaluations for the Economic Development Administration and sub-state economic development programs including Tax Increment Finance Authorities and Industrial Tax Abatements. She has written a number of books and over 90 articles and book chapters in these areas as well as public personnel administration focusing on the implementation of sexual harassment policy. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Urban Affairs and conducts training for local and state government officials on economic development incentives.
Her recent books include: Money for Nothing: Industrial Tax Abatements and Economic Development (with Gary Sands) 2012, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Comparative Civic Culture (with Raymond Rosenfeld) 2012, London: Ashgate Publications, and Reinventing Civil Society: The Emerging Role of Faith-Based Organizations in America (with Richard Hula and Cynthia Jackson-Elmoore), 2011, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Her current research projects include an analysis of gentrification and redevelopment in Mexico City and the issue of free-roaming animals in global cities.
Research Interests/Expertise: urban economic development; brownfield redevelopment; political science; urban planning; public administration; local government management; urban public policy