Laura R. Sullivan

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow with the School of Cities at the University of Toronto and recently completed my Ph.D. in Public Policy at Cornell University.  My research is focused on housing, neighborhoods, and local governments. I am especially interested in how policies shape places, and the implications policy decisions have for individual residential mobility decisions and macro-level patterns of segregation and inequality. I am an interdisciplinary scholar trained in sociological and demographic theory who uses quantitative, qualitative, and spatial methods to answer policy-relevant questions.

Prior to my doctoral studies, I was a Research Analyst in the Center of Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute, where I worked on a diverse set of policy-relevant projects, including how cities can support mobility from poverty and access to safety net programs. Before working at the Urban Institute, I received my Master of Public Administration degree from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington and a BS in Human Physiology with a minor in Biology from Gonzaga University.