Fellows

Claudia J. Coulton is the Lillian F. Harris Professor of Urban Social Research, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. Her research focuses on the problems of distressed urban neighborhoods and approaches to community change.

She is the founder of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, where a multidisciplinary team has been working for over 20 years to develop tools to better understand macro-level systemic forces that create distressed neighborhoods and what individuals, organizations, and policies can do to reverse these conditions.

Coulton is founder and board member of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership with affiliates in 30 cities that support technically advanced information solutions to address urban social problems. She has been a research adviser to many community change initiatives including Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Comprehensive Community Initiatives, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections initiative, and the Invest in Children program.

Her current studies focus on processes of residential mobility and neighborhood identity in poor communities; the effects of the foreclosure crisis on families and neighborhoods; and the influences of the built and social environment of neighborhoods on physical activity and obesity.