I am the acting director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship (CS3) at UMBC. In this capacity, I help to support the social sciences throughout the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) by sponsoring and co-sponsoring events, providing skill training workshops to faculty and students, administering grants and other financial support, connecting social scientists within and outside of the college, and elevating the work of faculty and students in the college. I previously served as Associate Director. I am also an associate professor of political science at UMBC. I primarily teach public policy and administration, urban problems and policy analysis, and state and local government. My research is centered on local government decision-making, particularly around economic development, community development, and sustainability policies. A second related stream of my research entails policy and program evaluations on economic and equity-oriented outcomes. I also serve as a faculty affiliate in our public policy school at UMBC where I teach courses and serve on dissertation committees. Outside of UMBC, I serve as a faculty affiliate to the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University and also to the Metropolitan Governance and Management Transitions (MGMT) lab at IU Bloomington, where I also serve as co-director. Finally, I serve as a member of the editorial team for the Urban Affairs Review. I completed my Ph.D. in urban and social policy at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University in March 2016. My research passion primarily lies at the intersection of community and economic development practices and city, regional, and state economic development. I primarily research the reasons that governments adopt equitable and sustainable economic development policies, and the effect those policies have on government (fiscal health), businesses (revenue growth, change in employment) and citizens (especially in terms of jobs and inequality). For more about my work, please see my website at: www.ericjstokan.com