As a graduate student in the Community and Economic Development Graduate Program, you have access to leading researchers in fields of rural sociology, community and economic development, agricultural economics, environmental resources, and sustainability.
Dr. Diane McLaughlin chats with a CEDEV student.
Our graduate faculty teach courses, advise MPS students working on the Master's paper, serve as resources for students, and conduct research advancing various areas of study. As a student in the graduate program, you'll have many opportunities to interact with faculty through the online courses, as an adviser and/or committee members for the CEDEV MPS Master's papers, and if you choose to attend commencement as a MPS graduate.
Faculty involved in the CEDEV graduate program have active research projects such as:
- the role of empathy as a tool for building community
- entrepreneurship success
- implications of Marcellus shale development for families and communities
- land-use change and implications for communities
- rural youth out-migration and youth educational, occupational and residential aspirations
- sustainable farming in rural-urban transition areas
- sustainable forests and forestry
- telecommunications and rural development
- the role of social capital in successful economic development
- the role of the informal economy in rural livelihoods
- energy conservation and low income assistance programs
Many of these projects include applications of the research to policy and practice.
Graduate faculty and instructors in CEDEV include:
- Theodore R. Alter, Ph.D. (Michigan State) Professor of Agricultural, Environmental, and Regional Economics
- Daniel Azzara, Ph.D. (Penn State) Professor of Agribusiness
- Mary Kate Berardi, Ph.D. (Penn State) Assistant Teaching Professor and Coordinator of the CEDEV Program
- Kathryn Brasier, Ph.D. (Wisconsin-Madison) Associate Professor of Rural Sociology
- Mark Brennan, Ph.D. (Penn State) Professor of Agricultural and Extension Education and Rural Sociology
- Michael Fortunato, Ph.D. (Penn State) CEDEV Instructor
- Leland l. Glenna, Ph.D. (Missouri) Associate Professor of Rural Sociology and Science, Technology, and Society
- Stephan J. Goetz, Ph.D. (Michigan State) Professor of Agricultural and Regional Economics
- Amanda Hope, Ph.D. (West Virginia University) CEDEV Instructor
- Jeffrey Hyde, Ph.D. (Purdue) Professor of Agricultural Economics
- Leif Jensen, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) Professor of Rural Sociology, Demography, and Sociology
- Timothy W. Kelsey, Ph.D. (Michigan) Professor of Agricultural Economics
- Terence Milstead, Ph.D. (Florida State University) CEDEV Instructor
- Frans Padt, Ph.D. (Radboud) Senior Lecturer & CEDEV Instructor
Please feel free to contact our faculty with any questions you may have about their research interests.
For more information about CEDEV faculty, including faculty research interests and contact information, please visit the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education Faculty page.
