Staff
Director of the Public Policy Research Center and
Director of Applied Research;
Research Associate Professor in Public Policy Administration
B.J. (UM-Columbia), Ph.D. (St. Louis University)
In January, 2003, Mark Tranel was named as Public Policy Research Center's Director. Dr. Tranel joined the PPRC in 1990 as Senior Research Analyst. In 2000 he became the Director of the PPRC's Division of Research. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Tranel has been the principal investigator or research project manager on over 50 applied research projects in the metropolitan St. Louis area.
Dr. Tranel received his doctorate in public policy analysis and administration from St. Louis University. He has taught public administration in the UM-St. Louis Department of Political Science, and economic development at the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Department of Public Administration and Policy Analysis.
He is an active participant in a number of housing and community development organizations including service as a member of the Board of Directors of North County, Inc and the Missouri Budget Project. In 1999, the exhibited his photographic work, "Street Banners, Urban Identity and Information" and "Metromorphosis" in 2001.
Prior to joining the staff at UM-St. Louis his experience included Director of Real Estate Development, Economic Council of St. Louis County where he was responsible for industrial development sites and the small business incubator program, and Manager of Neighborhood Preservation and Community Planner, Normandy Municipal Council. In this capacity he was responsible for housing, community and economic development programs for 20 municipalities.
His recently published work includes two chapters in St. Louis Metromorphosis: Past Trends, Future Directions -- "The Transforming Economy" (chapter 3) and "The St. Louis Transportation Transformation" (chapter 7). He also recently published ""The Role of County Governments in Metropolitan Administration: A Study of the St. Louis MSA” (Chapter 4) in Revitalizing the City: Strategies to Contain Sprawl and Revive the Core . He has also contributed a chapter, entitled "Riverian Revolution", to Hidden Assets: A Connecting the Past to the Future of St. Louis. In 2006, he co-authored "Metromorphosis: Documenting Change" in the Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol. 28, Issue 2.
Dr. Tranel recently presented papers at the annual conference of the Urban Affairs Association and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
He was elected as President of North County Inc. for 2007. He has been chairman of NCI's economic development committee for five years and an officer of the executive board for three.
Des Lee Endowed Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration
MA (Washington University), Ph.D. (Princeton)
In August 2008, Dr. Todd Swanstrom joined the University of Missouri-St. Louis as the Des Lee Endowed Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration. This is a joint appointment with PPRC, the Department of Political Science, and Public Policy Administration.
Prior to joining UMSL, Swanstrom was Professor of Public Policy Studies at Saint. Louis University. From 1982 – 2001, he was Professor of Political Science at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, State University of New York at Albany. He has also worked as a neighborhood planner for the City of Cleveland and as Director of Strategic Planning for the City of Albany.
Dr. Swanstrom is the author of six books, including Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-first Century, 2nd ed. (co-authored with Peter Dreier and John Mollenkopf). This text, published in 2001, examines the relationship between suburban sprawl and the decline of central cities and inner-ring suburbs. He also co-authored City Politics, 5th ed., which is a comprehensive examination of urban politics.
As Des Lee Endowed Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration, Dr. Swanstrom will work with the PPRC to achieve its mission of producing and disseminating applied analysis and evaluation of public policies and programs. In particular he will enhance PPRC’s capacity to fulfill its mission of conducting theoretical research on public policy issues.
Recently Dr. Swanstrom co-authored a report that examines the impact of foreclosures on the local enconomy. Conducted in a series of interviews, the research looks at six specific metropolitan areas, including St. Louis. The report can be viewed here. He also co-authored a paper on the impact of declining housing prices on economic integration. An executive summary can be found here.
Applied Research
M.A. (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
Jeanne Ortega joined
the research staff at the Public Policy Research Center in April
2001 as Senior Research Analyst. Ms. Ortega received her MA
at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1985. From
1986 to 2001 she worked with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation's
Program Review Department. Her responsibilities included new
evaluation strategies, data analysis, management information
systems and risk assessment. From 1991 to 2001 she provided
primary staff support to Neighborhood Reinvestment's Risk Analysis
Committee and served as custodian of the corporate risk analysis
information system. This system tracked data on over 200 non-profit
organizations. During 1998 and 1999 she participated in one
of the regional working groups for the Success Measures Project.
Sponsored by the Development Leadership Network, this was a
national effort to develop outcome indicators for use by community
development organizations in assessing the benefits resulting
from their initiatives. Ms. Ortega is a member of the American
Evaluation Association, ARNOVA (the Association for Research
on Non-profit and Voluntary Organizations) and the Development
Leadership Network.
M.A. (University of Missouri - St. Louis), Ph.D. (University of Missouri - St. Louis)
Will Winter joined the PPRC
as a Research Specialist in August 2003. In 2006 he received
his Ph.D. in Political Science, and in 2007 he was named as
a Research Assistant Professor in Public Policy Administration.
Prior to joining PPRC, Mr. Winter served as Director of the
Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, and in this capacity
he gained a variety of assessment and analysis tools. He brings
to the PPRC a strong background in social science research methodology
and neighborhood revitalization. Previous projects have included
GIS coverage detailing census units, political boundaries, street
networks, and parcel level geographies. Mr. Winter received
his M.A. in Political Science from UM-St. Louis.
BLS, MPA (Saint Louis University), Ph.D. candidate (University of Missouri - St. Louis)
Tracey Cannon joined the PPRC as a Research Associate in 2005. Prior to joining PPRC, Ms. Cannon was a grants administrator and fiscal manager for a research department at Saint Louis University. She was also a business consultant for LaRhein Management, Inc., an organization which helps community and faith based organizations obtain 501(c)3 status. Ms. Cannon brings a strong background in both quantitative and qualitative research, as well as experience in public speaking and presentation. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, and anticipates graduating in 2008.
David Laslo
B.S. (UM-St. Louis), M.A. (St. Louis University), Ph.D. (UM-St. Louis)
David Laslo is a Research Assistant Professor in Public Policy Administration with PPRC. He joined PPRC in 2000, as the director of PPRC's former Metropolitan Information and Data Analysis Services (MIDAS), a group devoted to supporting the teaching mission of the university and the research interests of faculty and students. While he was with MIDAS he worked to create information and assebmle data that informed metropolitan public policy issues. Dr. Laslo received his doctorate from the UM-St. Louis in political science with emphasis on urban politics and urban development. His dissertation on the proliferation of convention centers in the U.S. has lead to conference invitations and paper presentations at the American Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, the Industrial Relations Research Association and the North American Institute for Comparative Urban Research. Since 1990, Dr. Laslo has been a member of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Statistical Association (ASA) having served as Treasurer and is currently Secretary. He is also a member of the Population Committee of the ASA that does annual population estimates and projections for counties in the metropolitan area. He served as a committee member on various St. Louis and metropolitan research and information planning groups including the United Way Social Indicators Research Committee, the Regional Jobs Initiative and the St. Louis Empowerment Zone, and the Board of Directors of the Community Facilities Corporation.
Public Finance Initiative
BS (University of Missouri - Rolla), Ph.D. candidate (University of Missouri - St. Louis)
Steve Gardner joined the Public Policy Research Center as a Graduate
Research Assistant in September 2002, and became a Research
Specialist in 2003. When PPRC launched the Public Finance
Initiative in 2005, Mr. Gardner was named as Director
of the unit. Mr. Gardner has an extensive background
in state politics, as well as banking and management.
Mr. Gardner served as a Missouri State Representative
for three terms, from 1975-1981, and he was a candidate
for the US Congress in 1980. He also served as the president
of several banks during the 1980's and 90's. He holds
a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of
Missouri-Rolla. He is currently working toward his Ph.D
in Political Science at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis. His research interests include state and local
tax policy and state legislatures. Gardner has testified
before several committees of the Missouri Legislature
regarding property tax policy administration and the
linkage to school finance. Most recently he served as
an expert witness regarding assessment inequalities
and the school funding lawsuit.
B.S. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), M.S. (University of New Haven-Connecticut)
Samrita Lohani joined PPRC as a Research Specialist in July 2006. She received her M.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of New Haven-Connecticut. While she was in graduate school, she worked as a research assistant, doing qualitative and quantitative analysis. She also received GIS certification from the University of New Haven. She has also worked as a volunteer, providing GIS analysis and data management at the East West Council of Governments and at the Open Space Council.
PPRC Gallery
B.A. (Bennington College), MFA (University of Montana)
Curator Mel Watkin joined the Public Policy Research Center in 2003. Prior to this, she served as Chief Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (formerly the Forum for Contemporary Art) from Spring to Fall of 2002 and Curator from 1995 to 2002. She has curated exhibitions with numerous artists including: Kathleen Gilje, Sandow Birk, Enrique Chagoya, Kara Walker, Shahzia Sikander, Barry McGee, Matt Mullican, Sabina Ott, Doug Ischar and Michael Rees. Prior to her move to Southern Illinois she was a curator at the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) in Washington, D.C., from 1986 - 1990. From 1990 to 1995 she curated a number of free-lance exhibitions. Articles about her curatorial work have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Riverfront Times and on NPR's Morning Edition and Crossroads. Her work as a writer has recently been published in Art in America and Artpapers.
Ms. Watkin has held part and full-time teaching positions at Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Maryland at College Park and University of Montana. She served on “Grants to Organizations” panels for the states of Maryland and Illinois and sat on the Visual Arts “Grants to Organizations” panel for the National Endowment for the Arts in 1999. In 2003 she served as a panelist for the Regional Arts Commission in St. Louis, Missouri.
PPRC Communications
B.S (Webster University), MFA (UM-St. Louis)
Rebecca Pastor joined PPRC in October 2001 as the Communications Coordinator. She completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology at Webster University in 1992, and in 2007 she received an MFA in Creative Writing, Fiction, at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. She is also a freelance writer and has been published in Sauce Magazine. Ms. Pastor brings to the Center a strong background in community development, public policy and public relations. Prior to joining PPRC, Ms. Pastor directed the recycling programs for the City of St. Louis. She is accomplished in grantsmanship, public relations writing, and community collaboration. Previous writing projects have included work with Barnes-Jewish Hospital's Diabetes Education; the Clayton Farmer's Market; Abundant Life Seed Foundation and Seeds For Tomorrow. Ms. Pastor has been instrumental to the composition and dissemination of public information and the Center's communications plan.
Administrative Staff
BS (Saint Louis University), M.B.A. (Lindenwood University)
Telesa Nolan currently
serves as the Business Manager for the PPRC. She has been
with PPRC since 2002, and has played an instrumental role
in developing and maintaining an accounting and office system
that is accessible to the entire department. She brings more
than 12 years of accounting experience, as well as considerable
research and data analysis skills. In 2003, The Sue Shear
Institute for Women in Public Life selected Ms. Nolan to participate
in the 21st Century Leadership Academy, the premier leadership
program for Missouri college women. Telesa's selection gives
her the status of Shear Fellow. In May, Ms. Nolan received
her MBA from Lindenwood University.
BS (University of Missouri - St. Louis
Mark Fetters joined PPRC as Office Support III in February 2007. Prior to joining PPRC, Mr. Fetters worked as the Marketing and Program Director for the YMCA of Greater St. Louis. He also was the Development Director for Pallotine Renewal Center. He has entrepreneurial experience, and started the Legacy Soap Company and Mark Stevens, Inc. He obtained his BS in Psychology from UM-St. Louis in 2001. Mr. Fetters brings a strong background in cash flow management, as well as organizational and communications skills.