Jeff is Deputy Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Cities & Schools. Jeff has a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Nebraska. He has worked in city planning and community development related positions for nearly 10 years in addition to working for five years as a teacher at a Montessori farm school. Jeff’s research looks at the intersection of land use planning, school facility planning, and community development.

He recently completed the study "Planning and Siting New Public Schools in the Context of Community Development: The California Experience". Jeff’s recent publications include: "Public Schools as Public Infrastructure: Roles for Planning Researchers", Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2006, "Understanding the Housing-Schools Nexus: Integrating housing and educational policy and practice to improve neighborhoods and schools", in the book A History of Housing Discrimination:  An Examination of Barriers and Efforts to Achieve an Inclusive Society, 2008, (Routledge), "Public Schools as Public Infrastructure: Schools, Community, and Land Use Planning" in the book Infrastructure Planning and Finance: A Guide for Local Officials, 2008, (Solano Press Books), and "Engaging Schools in Urban Revitalization: The Y-PLAN (Youth – Plan, Learn, Act, Now!)", Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2007. 

Jeff is also researcher with the BEST (Building Educational Success Together) collaborative conducting analysis of the scale, scope, and distribution of public school capital expenditures across the country.