I lead the Johns Hopkins University 21st Century Cities Initative that studies the opportunities and challenges facing cities. The Initiative connects researchers across JHU's divisions to generate innovative interdisciplinary research. We focus, in particular, on the Baltimore area and collaborate with community partners and city agencies.

We will launch a pilot of the Baltimore Area Survey (BAS) in early 2023. We intend for the BAS to be an annual survey of a representative sample of residents in the Baltimore area so that researchers, community members, and policymakers are never more than a year away from collecting data on important topics related to Baltimore and its residents. We work with a community collaboration committee to identify themes and topics for the survey. In the pilot, we are focusing on five areas: connectivity to resources, neighborhoods, health, and finance & jobs.

The Baltimore Environmental and Social Collaborative (BSEC) is one of four integrated field labs supported by a $25 million grant from the Department of Energy to understand and to model the local effects of climate change. The project involves more than three dozen researchers from more than eight institutions to measure and to model climate conditions in Baltimore, and to investigate potential mitigation and adaptation efforts in a development city with community collaborators.