Chris Benner

Chris Benner is an Associate Professor of Community and Regional Development, and Chair of the Community Development Graduate Group at UC Davis.  His research focuses on the relationships between technological change, regional development, and the structure of economic opportunity, focusing on regional labor markets and the transformation of work and employment patterns.  His applied policy work focuses on workforce development policy, workforce intermediaries, and strategies for promoting regional equity.

Mary Cadenasso

Mary Cadenasso is an urban ecosystem ecologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, where she teaches Urban Ecology and Ecosystems and Landscapes and serves on the Executive Committee of the Graduate Group in Ecology at UC Davis.  She is a founding co-Principal Investigator on the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a National Science Foundation, Long-Term Ecological Research program.  Her research focuses on the testing links between system structure and ecological functioning across multiple systems and scales. She collaborates extensively with hydrologists, biogeochemists, geographers, historians, social scientists, and urban designers.

David Campbell

David Campbell serves as a Cooperative Extension Specialist and as Director of the California Communities Program (CCP) in the Human and Community Development Department at UC Davis. Dr. Campbell’s research examines the intersection between public policy and community development processes at the local level.  He is currently leading a UCD research team evaluating a Sierra Health Foundation youth leadership development initiative. He is married to a Presbyterian minister and has a 21-year old son attending Whitman College.

Susan Handy

Dr. Susan Handy is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and the Director of the University Transportation Center at UC Davis.  Her research interests focus on the relationships between transportation and land use, both the impact of transportation investments on land development and the impact of land development patterns on travel behavior, and she has more than 50 publications on these topics.  She is internationally known for her research on the connection between neighborhood design and walking behavior and is widely respected in the field of transportation planning for her ability to link research to policy and practice.  

Elisabeth Kersten

Elisabeth Kersten is a Clinical Professor at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning, and Development in Sacramento.  She teaches and develops policy outreach to connect the university to the legislature and the state government.  She was formerly the director of the California Senate Office of Research for 20 years, a bipartisan think tank developing policy and preparing studies for the 40 members of the California State Senate.

David Kyle

David Kyle is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Davis. He is also a member of the Geography Graduate Group and the Community Development Graduate Group. His research focuses on the sociology of international migrations/ Diaspora, human trafficking, and the cross-cultural brokering of for-profit and non-profit organizations. David Kyle and Michael Rios are the principal investigators on the Sacramento Valley Diasporas Project, a new initiative with the CRC examining why and how Sacramento became one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States and its many implications for the region.

Michael Rios

Michael Rios is a professor in the Department of Environmental Design and is affiliated with the Geography and Community Development Graduate Groups at UC Davis.  His research interests focus on public policy, professional practice, and citizen participation in regional planning and urban design. Current CRC research projects include a comparative study of diaspora communities in the Sacramento region and a multi-year project focused on youth and regional vitality. 

Daniel A. Sumner

Daniel A. Sumner is the Director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center and the Frank H. Buck, Jr. Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC, Davis where he teaches and conducts research and outreach on agricultural economics and policy. Before coming to the University in 1993, Sumner was Assistant Secretary for Economics at USDA.

Stephen Wheeler

Steve Wheeler is the author of Planning for Sustainability and co-editor of The Sustainable Urban Development Reader. His current research is on  the built landscapes of metropolitan regions and planning for climate change. He will be working with the Center on topics of regional growth management, urban design, sustainability, and planning for climate change.