Areas of Research Interest

Frameworks: organization theory; economic sociology; urban studies

Substance:
U.S.: mortgage lending discrimination, spatial and institutional segregation, American politics
International: microfinance and cooperative institutions; informal sector


Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1998 – Present

Lecturer in Public Policy, July 2008 to present

Associate Professor, July 2003 to June 2008

Lecturer in Public Policy July 1998 to June 2003

Faculty Chair: Executive Leadership Development for Pakistan

Faculty Instructor (2004 and 2006): Public Policy Challenges: Analysis, Applications, and Strategies (Focus on Microfinance). Two-week summer course for students from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

Faculty Instructor: Financial Institutions for Private Enterprise Development: Micro and SME Finance in Theory and Practice

Faculty Affiliate: Taubman Center for State and Local Government; Women and Public Policy Program


Previous Professional Experience

Project Director, FaithCorp Fund, Partners in Community Development, Dec. 1995 – June 1998

Economic Development Specialist, Metro Chicago Information Center, Oct. 1994 – Dec. 1995

Adjunct Lecturer, Spertus College, Urban Developer Program, Nov. 1995 – July 1996

Independent Consultant, Mar. 1994 – Oct. 1994

Adjunct Lecturer, Northwestern University, Department of Sociology, Mar. 1994 – June 1994


Education

Ph.D 1994 (Political Science), University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Advisor: John F. Padgett

M.A. 1990 (Polictical Science), University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

B.A. Hons. 1988 (Politics and Economics), Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom


Awards

African-American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native-American (ALANA) Student Caucus, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2005.
Diversity Award for commitment and contribution to racial and ethnic diversity in teaching.

American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C. 1994
Best Dissertation in Urban Politics, 1993-94

Dearborn Real Estate Board, Chicago, Illinois 1993
Humanitarian Award

Exeter College, Oxford University, Oxford, U.K. 1987
Stapeldon Exhibition


Books

Discriminating Risk: The U.S.Mortgage Lending Industry in the Twentieth Century Cornell University Press, 2003

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

“Sustaining Public Value Through Microfinance” in In Search of Public Value: Beyond Private Choice, eds. John Bennington and Mark Moore, Palgrave MacMillan, (Forthcoming)

“Appropriate Fit: Service Delivery Beyond Bureaucracy, Lessons from Microfinance” in The State of Access: How democratic governance impedes and advances equal access, eds. Jorritt de Jong and Gowher Rizvi, Brookings Institution Press (Forthcoming)

“Organizations, Institutions, and Embeddedness: Caste and Gender in Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh, India” International Public Management Journal, (Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007)

“Microfinance and Subsidies: Who Pays?” Ethics and Economics, (Volume 5, Issue 1, 2007)

“Regulatory Innovation in Microfinance: The MACS Act in Andhra Pradesh,” Special Issue on Microfinance, Innovations: Technology/ Governance/ Globalization, (Volume 2, Issue 1/2, 2007)

“Databases, Felons, and Voting: Bias and Partisanship of the Florida Felons' List in the 2000 Elections.” Political Science Quarterly, (Volume 119, Issue 3, 2004)

“The Production and Interpretation of Information in the Mortgage Loan Application Process: An alternative research agenda to explain and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in denial rates” Chicago Policy Review Spring, 2000.

Conference and Working Papers

“SymBanc™: A Simulator for Microfinance Institutions,” with Gary B. Hirsch, Jay Rosengard, and Don Johnston, Jr. Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Conference of the Systems Dynamics Society, July 2005, Cambridge, MA

“Boston at the Crossroads: Racial Trends in the Metropolitan Region in the 1990s and Beyond” Working Paper 12, Rappaport Institute of Greater Boston, December 2004.

“Bringing Space Back In: Measuring segregation along three dimensions across multiple units of analysis.” Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association, August 2004, San Francisco, CA.

“The Social Production of Color Lines: Interrogating the spatial manifestation of color lines in four metropolitan areas.” Working Paper presented at The Harvard Color Lines Conference, August/September 2003, Cambridge, MA 

“Embedded Cooperation: Women’s Thrift Cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh” Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association, August 2003, Atlanta, GA

“Integration or Resegregation: The Chicago Metropolitan Area at the Turn of the New Century” Working Paper, The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University, May 2002

“Mortgage Lending to Minority and Low-income Home Buyers in the 1990’s: Underwriting Changes, Automated Underwriting and Subprime Lending” Paper presented at Summit 2000, The LISC Center for Home Ownership, Washington, D.C., December 2000.

“The Politics of Risk” Paper presented at Seminar on Mobilizing for Social Change, Harvard University, December 2000.

“Segregation in the Boston Metropolitan Area at the End of the 20th Century” Working Paper, The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University and Taubman Center for State and Local Government, Kennedy School of Government, February 2000.

“The Social Construction of Risk in Mortgage Lending.” Paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Conference, 1993.


Book Reviews

Varady, David and Jeffrey Raffel, Selling Cities. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 101, #6, May 1996 (pp.1760-2)

Immergluck, Dan Credit to the Community: Community Reinvestment and Fair Lending Policy in the United States. Urban Affairs Review, forthcoming


Teaching Cases

“Si No Llueve (If it does not rain)” with Michael Palmer, Charles Mann, and Marianna Gabarrot Arenas. A video case study on poverty in rural Oaxaca, Mexico. 2006

“Emergency Response to a Long-Term Crisis? Médecins Sans Frontières and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia” with Regina Galang, Kennedy School of Government, 2006

“Beyond Banking: Gender, Activism, and Self-Help in Maharashtra” with Pamela Young, Case # 1806.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2005

SymBanc, A Microfinance Computer Simulation Game, 2005

“Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship: South Pacific Business Development Foundation” with Regina Galang and Susie Margolin, Case # 1804.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2005

“The Social Construction of Gender: Microfinance and fa’afafines in Samoa,” with Regina Galang and Susie Margolin, Case # 1805.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2005

“Corporate Values and Transformation: The Microlender Compartamos” with Richard Schlefer, Case #1761.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2005

“Women’s Thrift Cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh” Case # 1656.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2002

“A Commercial Bank Does Microfinance: The Case of Sogesol, Haiti” Case #1657.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2002

“Bartercard UK” Case #1670.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2000

“Coastal Ventures Limited Partneship – Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission” Case #1669.0, Kennedy School of Government, 2000.


Funding Awards

Women and Public Policy Program, Kennedy School of Government: Case study on South Pacific Business Development Foundation, $12,742, 2004

Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Instructional Technology, Harvard University and Kennedy School of Government: Development of “Virtual Bank” simulation for use in executive education and degree program courses, $,57,000, 2004

Women and Public Policy Program, Kennedy School of Government: Women and Household Financial Management in Rural Andhra Pradesh, India, $5,000, 2004

Taubman Center for State and Local Government, Kennedy School of Government: Dynamics of Segregation in Four Metropolitan Areas, $39,000, 2003-4

Rappaport Institute of Greater Boston: Dynamics of Segregation in the Boston Metropolitan Area, $10,000, 2003-4

Taubman Center for State and Local Government, Kennedy School of Government: For completion of manuscript of Discriminating Risk, $30,000, 2001

Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government: Study of Women’s Thrift Cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh, $10,000, 2001


Professional Activities

Courses: Microfinance in Theory and Practice; Management in Development Context; Organizational Analysis for Managers; Operations Management; Seminar on Business and Government.

Presentations, Panels, etc. (partial list): “The Production of Space and the Impact of Racial and Ethnic Segregation,” Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, 2006; “Boston at the Crossroads,” Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, May 5 2005; “School Segregation,” National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Charlotte, North Carolina, May 12, 2005; “Boston at the Crossroads,” Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, January 12, 2004. “Financing Homeownership for Minorities,” Presentation at the National Fair Housing Alliance, 15th Annual Conference, Washington, D.C, June 30, 2003; “Minority Homeownership,” Presentation at the Quint-Regional FHIP/FHAP Conference, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Atlanta, GA, May 2003; Moderator, Panel Discussion, Housing Summit, 2001, LISC Center for Home Ownership, Washington, D.C., November 2001; Rural Housing Lending Partnership, Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, April 2001; Advisory Committee, LISC Center for Home Ownership, Miami, Florida, February 2001; Panel Discussion. “Sixteen Decisions” a film by Gayle Ferraro. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, September 2000.

Media Interviews
BBC World Service, Newshour, October 18, 2006, 2000 GMT [Click Here]