Evans School Associate Professor Rachel Garshick Kleit serves as the project director and principal investigator. Kleit is a leading expert on community development, particularly concerning affordable and mixed-income housing and economic security. She is also an affiliate of the West Coast Poverty Center and on the executive committee.

Additional project leadership provided by:

• Evans School Dean and Professor Sandra Archibald (economic sustainability and agricultural economics)
• Research Associate and Project Manager Jane Cover (demography and poverty)
• Research Associate Christopher Fowler (competitive policies, urban and economic geography)
• Willem Scholten, Director of Learning Access Institute

Project advisors:

The working group is comprised of researchers and practitioners at the University of Washington who conduct research in poverty alleviation and community, economic, and workforce development.

• Evans School Assistant Professor Joaquin Herranz (cultural vitality, workforce development, evaluation)
• Evans School Professor Robert Plotnick (anti-poverty and welfare policy; West Coast Poverty Center executive committee)
• Evans School and School of Social Work Professor Marcia Meyers (anti-poverty and welfare policy; West Coast Poverty Center Director and Principal Investigator)
• Evans School Associate Professor Marieka Klawitter (anti-poverty policy, asset-building, labor policy, evaluation)
• West Coast Poverty Center Program Director Rachel Lodge (practitioner)
• Visiting faculty member Zbigniew Bochniarz (economic development)

Graduate Research Assistants:

• Colleen Chrisinger, Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy and Management (labor and anti-poverty policy)
• Amy Fuhrman, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology (demography, community and urban sociology)
• Man Wang, Ph.D. candidate in Geography (population and urban geography, GIS)

Project Alumni:

• Nathalie Jones, MPA
• Andy Fenstermacher, MUP
• J Christopher Pierson, MPA
• Jacqueline Meijer-Irons, Ph.D. candidate
• Anthony Russo, MPA candidate
• Tanja Srebotnjak, Ph.D.