Research Overview

Why are some places persistently worse-off than others?

My research, which focuses on the question above, lies at the intersection of rural sociology, geography, and demography. Using a unique combination of critical theory and demographic methods, I draw on these research traditions to theorize and test the socially and spatially uneven nature of health, well-being, and the environment in rural America.

Using a variety of quantitative methods and often focusing on environmental and natural resource contexts, I approach the study of spatial inequality and the geography of well-being from three main directions. My first major research area focuses on rural well-being in the United States—where I use a broad definition to include health-based (mental and physical), social, and economic dimensions. I have conducted numerous studies under this area, and at the moment I am the Principle Investigator on an NIH-funded U01 focused on the relationship between Medicaid expansion, poverty, and ethnic and racial mortality disparities.

My second body of work focuses on environmental injustice, the commodification of nature, and the relationship between the environment and physical well-being. By identifying existing environmental injustices, theorizing and evaluating how we commodify nature, and testing the impact of environmental factors on well-being, my research provides policy relevant information to improve both rural and urban areas in the United States. My current work in this area is focusing on the unaddressed public health crisis of household water and sanitation in the United States. I am actively working on projects related to the relationship between water quality and mortality, as well as the economic impacts of rural water infrastructure.

My third major research area focuses on the measurement and tracking of poverty across space. Our understanding of well-being in only as good as our measurement. At present, those of us working at the sub-state level in the United States are forced to use measures of poverty that are outdated and inadequate. To help resolve this, I am working to improve sub-state measurement of poverty in several ways. First, I have developed a framework for understanding how poverty changes across space—known as the poverty balancing equation. Second, via the previously mentioned U01, I am working to both improve our current Supplemental Poverty Measure in the United States, as well as generate estimates of the Supplemental Poverty Measure at the county level.