INSTITUTIONAL PORTFOLIO
The Geography of Adequacy
Applying the Spatial Echo to expose the spatial and fiscal drivers of institutional inadequacy.
The Spatial Echo
The framework's lineage reflects successive theoretical integration. Drawing on Critical Geography and Critical Race Theory, the author first synthesized these into Critical Geography and Race (CGR), a combined lens for analyzing how spatial organization and racial hierarchy co-produce one another; alongside Critical Policy Analysis (CPA), CGR foregrounds how ostensibly neutral policy generates racialized spatial outcomes. Subsequent research established the Spatial Echo as the broader structure that subsumes CGR and CPA, deploying them as analytic instruments when the phenomenon under study is racially or politically organized and setting them aside when it is not, as in the spatial distribution of broadband access or freight-corridor employment. The framework further incorporates a sender–receiver model as a constituent mechanism, specifying how an imposed geometry propagates from a classified sender into receiver geographies the originating policy never touched.
Theoretical Pillars
01
Historical Patterning: Linking modern disparities to past discriminatory policies like redlining.
02
Spatial Imaginary: How policies function as proxies for exclusion.
03
Racial Capitalism: Extracting value from group-differentiated spatial vulnerability.
Current Project: 2026-2029
TISA’s Equitable Promise
Evaluating Tennessee’s student-centered funding formula to ensure weighted allocations deliver genuine adequacy for high-needs districts.
Quantify Disparities
Analyzing TISA weighted allocations across racially and geographically distinct districts to identify significant differences in per-pupil funding.
Access Adequacy
Surveying CFOs and principals to measure perceived adequacy and administrative burden across four CGR-informed district archetypes.
Practioner Toolkit
Developing the TISA Adequacy Audit Toolkit to provide actionable guidance for district leaders and policymakers.
Research Implementation Roadmap
Year 1: Acquisition & Deployment
Acquire TISA administrative data (2026–27) from various state sources limited to public data sources.
Year 2: Acquisition & Deployment
Conduct multivariate regression and multilevel modeling (MLM) to test funding disparities and perceived burden. Create survey from validated model and submit to administrators, state officers, etc.
Year 3: Synthesis & Dissemination
Finalize the TISA Adequacy Audit Toolkit and publish findings in peer-reviewed, open-access journals.
Flint Reimagined
A Critical Geography of Race and the Right to Thrive. This scholarly analysis moves beyond the water crisis to examine how decades of deliberate policy choices constructed a landscape of inequality in Flint, Michigan.
NASHVILLE REGIONAL ANALYSIS
The Spaital Echo
Analyzing how the economic boom in Nashville creates a "Spatial Echo" of displacement reproduced in receiver cities like Clarksville and Murfreesboro.
$10K
The "Growth Penalty" funding deficit per student in receiver districts.
19%
Higher disciplinary prevalence in under-resourced receiver schools.