Jason Reece

Jason is a senior researcher at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity at The Ohio State University and has worked for the Institute since 2003. He manages and directs the Opportunity Communities Initiative which includes all GIS, housing, community development, neighborhood revitalization and regional equity initiatives at the Institute. His work involves outreach, education, advocacy and policy research on issues related to fair housing/opportunity based housing, community development, neighborhood revitalization, regional equity and GIS. As director of the opportunity communities initiative, Jason manages more than 15 staff and has assisted community organizations, philanthropic organizations, public agencies and other non-profit or faith based organizations in more than twenty states. He recently organized the Institute's 2008 national convening on subprime lending, foreclosure and race. Some of his recent publications include Perspectives on Community Economic Development in a Global Economy in the publication CED in the Global Economy published by the American Bar Association and Poverty's Place: The Use of Geographic Information Systems in Poverty Advocacy published in Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy. Jason also is an adjunct lecturer in the Ohio State University's department of City & Regional Planning, teaching on issues of social equity in planning and development. Prior to working for the Kirwan Institute, Jason was a regional planner for the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments working on issues of community/economic development, land use and transportation. He also has worked in rural community and economic development for Ohio State University Extension, where much of his work focused on Ohio's exurban areas and the Appalachian region. Jason has worked for the Ohio Department of Development in the Office of Strategic Research and for a municipal planning agency. He has been active in the field of GIS for twelve years, including time working as a research assistant managing GIS laboratories at Miami University and as a GIS consultant. Jason was certified AICP by the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2003. He received a Master's degree in City and Regional planning from The Ohio State University and studied city planning abroad at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban and Regional planning from Miami University.