Our Team
Michael A. Nutter
Managing Director, Public Service and Policy Initiative
Senior Executive Fellow, City and Regional Planning
Fellow, Penn Institute for Urban Research
Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
Michael A. Nutter served as the 98th mayor of Philadelphia—the nation’s fifth largest city—from January 2008 to January 2016, and as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 2012 to 2013. During his time in office, he was widely recognized as a reformer, leading changes in policing, economic development, taxation, sustainability policy, and other areas. In 2014, Nutter was named as one of Governing magazine’s Public Officials of the Year; in 2011, Esquire magazine cited him among its Americans of the Year. During Nutter’s mayoralty, Philadelphia’s city government received more than 150 awards for innovative programs, good government practices, and general excellence. Before winning election as the city’s chief executive, Nutter served on the Philadelphia City Council for almost 15 years, from 1992 to 2006. He was also the chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority Board from 2003 to 2007. He now serves as a distinguished faculty member at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
He currently serves as Managing Director of the Public Service and Policy Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania's Stuart Weitzman School of Design, a Senior Executive Fellow in the City and Regional Planning Department at Weitzman, and Fellow at the Penn Institute for Urban Research (PennIUR). He also serves as a distinguished faculty member at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
Rita Ludwig
Data Scientist
Philadelphia Economic Equity Project
Dr. Rita Ludwig is a social scientist who utilizes a mixed-methods approach to studying complex psychological and sociological phenomena. Her expertise is in building predictive models of human behavior using individual-level characteristics, such as personality traits and neural activity. She is passionate about using rigorous empirical research to inform the development of policy to reduce inequities in health, education, and income, which she does as the data scientist for PEEP.
Dr. Ludwig earned her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Oregon, where her dissertation focused on how socioeconomic inequities are psychologically reinforced. She also has earned a Master’s in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from Columbia University. Her previous work includes research on topics such as neuroeconomics, goal achievement, and social neuroscience conducted at Temple University and Harvard University.
Karina Hinojosa
Research Coordinator
Philadelphia Economic Equity Project
Karina’s experience and interests lie in research communication, environmental justice, and citizen science and media. She received her B.S. in Environmental Science and Science Writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she focused on flood-risk mapping and community communication. As the Research Coordinator for the Philadelphia Economic Equity Project she works in survey development and community engagement.
Lance Freeman, PhD
Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor & James W. Effron University Professor
Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
Principal Investigator
Philadelphia Economic Equity Project
Lance Freeman is the James W. Effron University Professor, and 29th Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor, at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Weitzman and in the Department of Sociology in the School of Arts & Sciences. Neighborhoods are what fascinates him and motivates his research. He studies how neighborhoods change and evolve over time, the role neighborhoods play in people’s lives, and he is exploring how we can use social media and other new technologies as tools to study neighborhoods. His study of neighborhoods is motivated by an aim to learn how we can use this knowledge to plan and build better and more equitable places.
Professor Freeman has published a number of articles in refereed journals on issues related to gentrification, urban poverty, housing policy, urban sprawl, the relationship between the built environment and public health and residential segregation. His books include
There Goes the Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up by Temple University Press
A Haven and a Hell: The Ghetto in Black America by Columbia University Press.
Planning and Control of Land Development by University of North Carolina Press. With Daniel Mandelker, Carol Necole Brown, Stuart Meck, Dwight H. Merriam, Peter W. Salsich, Jr., and Edward J. Sullivan.
Prior to beginning his academic career, Professor Freeman worked as a researcher for Mathematica Policy Research, a leading social science research organization in Washington, D.C. Professor Freeman also has professional planning experience, working as a City Planner for the New York City Housing Authority.