Ameregis

Ameregis research and GIS staffs have many years of experience in analyzing and mapping regional and local data. Thomas Luce, Ameregis Research Director, has published and taught in the areas of state and local public finance, infrastructure pricing and metropolitan development. Our GIS staff is a team of highly qualified geographers and GIS professionals, many with MGIS degrees—a new degree that combines cartographic training with an emphasis on computer mapping technology.

Myron Orfield
Myron Orfield, Ameregis President and founder, is a leader in the use of GIS technology to influence public policy. Orfield has published articles on land use, fiscal policy, and regional governance, and his book, Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability (Brookings Institution: 1997), "redefined the field of regional studies." His latest work, American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality, published by the Brookings Institution in March 2002, provides an eye-opening analysis of the economic, racial, environmental, and political trends of the 25 largest metropolitan regions in the United States.
As a legislator in the Minnesota House of Representatives and the State Senate, Orfield has used regional research and data mapping to pass sweeping legislation for changes in the state's policies on land use and taxation. Orfield has a BA from the University of Minnesota, did graduate work at Princeton, and has a law degree from the University of Chicago.

Guided by Orfield's vision and experience in the trenches of regional reform, Ameregis is staffed by a team of highly qualified geographers and researchers.

GIS Department

Aaron Timbo
Aaron Timbo serves as the GIS Director for Ameregis. He holds a Masters in GIS degree and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota. His emphasis is on product and application development. He has extensive experience in database administration and programming. His innovative use of automation has both reduced costs and improved the data quality at Ameregis.

Research Department

Thomas Luce
Ameregis' Research Director has a 20-year record of research on economic development and fiscal issues in American metropolitan areas. His work includes three (co-authored) books on economic and fiscal issues in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, quantitative analysis of the effects of tax rate disparities on metropolitan growth patterns, research on the Twin Cities Fiscal Disparities Tax-base Sharing Program, and various pieces on other aspects of economic development in metropolitan areas. Luce received his BA from Swarthmore College, has a MS from the University of London, and a PhD in public policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Since joining Ameregis, Luce has taken the lead in developing comprehensive measures of local government fiscal capacity, more rigorous methods of classifying suburban communities and simulating of the effects of hypothetical tax-base sharing in metropolitan areas. His contributions have strengthened Ameregis' efforts to understand the social and fiscal dynamics of metro areas and broadened the scope of Ameregis' work.

Jeff Rosenberg
Jeff Rosenberg is a research associate for Ameregis. His research experience includes analysis of local and regional planning issues in the Twin Cities, contributions to several chapters on regional planning in the Twin Cities and Portland, and development of a legal handbook for Minnesota counties. He is also an avid cook.

Jeff has a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Minnesota and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs.

Development Department

This department's staff information is coming soon - please check back!

Administration

Joann Bonde