One of the primary reasons that Penn State is recognized around the globe as a distinguished university is the sterling caliber of its faculty. As a World Campus student in the community and economic development program, you can learn from the same faculty who teach traditional, face-to-face classes on Penn State's University Park campus. The faculty listed below are in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Penn State. Each is responsible for teaching one of the courses in the community and economic development certificate program.
Professor of Agricultural, Environmental, and Regional Economics
Dr. Alter's research and teaching focuses on public sector economics, community and regional economics, community and rural development, institutional and behavioral economics, resource and environmental economics, leadership and organizational change, and the scholarship of engagement in higher education. He has conducted comparative analyses of local public finance and management issues for rural areas of the United States and Europe and studied rural policy in the European Union, Ireland, and the United States. He served as adviser and analyst for the Rural Public Management Project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, from 1987 to 1989. Dr. Alter co-teaches CEDEV 500 Principles of Community and Economic Development and Leadership.
Jeffrey C. Bridger, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate
Dr. Bridger's research and teaching focuses on community and economic development, the human dimensions of natural resources, qualitative research methods, and public scholarship and university engagement. His research has addressed sustainable community development in rural areas, the impact of rurality on social well-being, land use at the rural-urban interface, and conflicts over hazardous waste facility sitings. He is currently conducting a study of the relationship between social capital and economic development in several communities throughout Pennsylvania. Dr. Bridger co-teaches CEDEV 500 Principles of Community and Economic Development and Leadership.
Professor of Agricultural, Environmental, and Regional Economics and Demography
Dr. Findeis seeks to identify and understand the impacts of economic-social-environmental and policy change on human well-being. Her recent research has examined individual and household decision-making behaviors related to food production and adequate income provision, labor allocation and natural resource use, and understanding the impacts of public policy reform related to agricultural household-firms and poverty. Her work includes the study of developing and developed country situations, as they represent a continuum of behaviors. Recent research efforts—often in collaboration with graduate students—have concentrated on the NAFTA countries (United States, Canada, Mexico); South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal); and China and Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, The Gambia). Increasingly her work includes an environmental, land use, or spatial component. Dr. Findeis teaches CEDEV 575 Methods and Techniques for Community and Economic Development.
Director of Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development and Professor of Agricultural and Regional Economics
Dr. Goetz has a wide variety of research interests. An underlying theme of his work is the role of markets and human capital in stimulating economic growth and development. Recent research addressed issues such as inequality and economic growth, migration, industrial location, and the impacts of rural economic development policies. Current studies include applications of spatial econometric methods to modeling economic growth, the determinants and effects of social capital at the county level, and as interactions among the environment, wages, and job growth. Dr. Goetz alternates teaching CEDEV 430 Principles of Economic Development with Dr. Larson.
Senior Lecturer in Community Development
Dr. Higdon is a lifelong student of international rural development, with more than twenty years of academic training and professional work experience. After serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, he earned a master's degree in rural sociology at Penn State. He conducted research and consulting in urban economic development while a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh.
In 1994 Dr. Higdon was awarded a Fulbright Dissertation Research Fellowship to study Mennonite agricultural settlements in Central America. His current research focuses on community-based nonprofit organizations, rural entrepreneurship, and international service learning. Dr. Higdon has taught CEDEV 500 and teaches CEDEV 509.
Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics
Dr. Larson's primary research interests are land tenure issues and rural economic development, both international and domestic. Dr. Larson has researched land titling and land markets in Latin America and is looking at the effects of development on agriculture in urbanizing areas on the domestic front.
She also studies women's immigration in agricultural labor markets. She is based at Penn State Berks, where she teaches undergraduate courses in economics and agricultural economics. Dr. Larson alternates teaching CEDEV 430 Principles of Economic Development with Dr. Goetz.
Associate Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography CEDEV Graduate Program Coordinator
Dr. McLaughlin's interests include studying rural communities with an emphasis on how changes in the larger society affect the well-being and viability of rural communities, families, and individuals, and the ability of communities and residents of those communities to act and successfully respond to change.
Dr. McLaughlin has looked specifically at issues of poverty, earnings, industrial structure, family formation, and youth educational aspirations and attainment and outmigration. She is the program coordinator of the community and economic development graduate program in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. Dr. McLaughlin teaches CEDEV 452 Rural Organization.
