Penn State is recognized around the globe as a distinguished university because of 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 have academic homes in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Those listed first currently are teaching one of the courses in the community and economic development program. All 26 faculty may serve as master's paper/project/internship advisers or committee members.
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.
Professor of Agricultural, Environmental, and Regional Economics
Dr. Alter's research and teaching focus 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.
Assistant Dean for Strategic Initiatives
Ann Dodd is the assistant dean for strategic initiatives in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State. Her responsibilities include strategic planning, implementation of strategic initiatives, and the administration, assessment, and improvement of the college's graduate programs.
Her research and teaching interests include conflict communication, leadership, and quality management. Dr. Dodd served for five years as a senior consultant in Penn State's Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment. She joined Penn State in 1999 after five years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she last served as executive assistant to the vice chancellor and director of institutional effectiveness. Dr. Dodd teaches CEDEV 505 Leadership Development.
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 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 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.
Other Faculty with Community and Economic Development Interests
Other faculty with interests in community and economic development in Penn State's Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology are listed below. They may work with you as a faculty adviser for your master's paper, project, or as an internship adviser, or they may serve on your master's committee.
Associate Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Economics
Areas of interest: natural resource economics and policy
Professor of Agricultural Economics and Law
Areas of interest: estate planning and administration, business organization, employer/employee issues and agricultural law, environmental law, particularly as applied to agriculture
Professor of Agricultural Economics
Areas of interest: agribusiness, international trade, food and agricultural policy, international agricultural development
Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: environmental/natural resource sociology, agriculture, land-use issues
Visiting Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Economics
Areas of interest: economics of environment and development
Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: sociology of agriculture and natural resources, science and technology studies, and economic sociology
Associate Professor of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: sociology of food systems, agriculture and environment; rural social change and development
Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Community Systems
Areas of interest: public policy, consumer behavior, community development, information systems
Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography
Areas of interest: demography, social stratification, international development, and economic change
Professor of Agricultural Economics
Areas of interest: community economics and public policy
Professor Emeritus of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: land-use planning
Professor of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: rural sociology, rural community development, rural policy, natural resource sociology
Associate Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Economics
Areas of interest: environmental and natural resource economics
Professor of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: agriculture, natural resources, and women in agriculture and rural development
Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology and Professor of Agricultural and Regional Economics
Areas of interest: rural development, economic diversification, international agricultural development
Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography
Areas of interest: social demography, demographic development, and research methodology
Professor of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: rural sociologist, family sociology extension
Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology
Areas of interest: individual well-being and life-satisfaction in adulthood, changing values and attitudes through the life span, adolescent behavior, rurality
