Brookings Mountain West
Mailing Address: Box 453067 4505 S. Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-3067
Phone: 702-895-0088 Fax: 702-895-0100 E-mail: brookingsmountainwest@unlv.edu Campus Location: 2104 Greenspun Hall (GUA)
Robert E. Lang, Ph.D. robert.lang@unlv.edu UNLV Director, Brookings Mountain West Professor of Sociology Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution Campus Location: 2112 Greenspun Hall Phone: 702-895-0094 Fax: 702-895-0100
Robert E. Lang is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Brookings Mountain West at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is also the Director of The Lincy Institute at UNLV. In addition, Dr Lang is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Fellow of the Urban Land Institute, both in Washington, DC. In 2008, Dr Lang was a Fulbright Fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In 2006, he was a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Arizona State University. Dr. Lang was also recently a Planning and Development Fellow of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA, and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the University of California, Riverside.
Prior to joining UNLV, Dr. Lang was a Professor and Director of the Urban Affairs and Planning program at Virginia Tech in Alexandria, VA and served as the founding Director of the Metropolitan Institute. Previous to Virginia Tech, he was Director of Urban and Metropolitan Research at Fannie Mae in Washington, DC. Dr. Lang has also served as editor on several academic journals, including Housing Policy Debate and the Journal of the American Planning Association.
Dr. Lang received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University, where he also taught urban studies. His research specialties include suburban studies, real estate, demographic and spatial analysis, economic development, and metropolitan governance. He has authored over 150 academic and professional publications on a wide range of topics, and has developed many new urban planning concepts such as "Boomburbs," " Edgeless Cities," and "Megapolitan Areas." Dr. Lang has managed over 14 million dollars in research and foundation grants since 1996. He has also given over 250 professional and academic talks since that date. Dr. Lang's research has been featured in the USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report and reported on by NPR, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, and ABC World News Tonight.
Dr. Lang's work includes the books Edgeless Cities: Exploring the Elusive Metropolis (2003) and Boomburbs: the Rise of America's Accidental Cities (2007) which are published by the Brookings Institution Press. He is also co-author of three edited volumes on the census titled Redefining Urban and Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000, also by the Brookings Institution Press. Dr. Lang's newest book titled The New Politics of Planning (2009) was published by the Urban Land Institute. His next book is Megapolitan America, which will be published by the American Planning Association in the fall 2011.
William E. Brown Jr. william.brown@unlv.edu Director, Planning and Communications Brookings Mountain West at UNLV Campus Location: 2109 Greenspun Hall Phone: 702-895-0091 Fax: 702-895-0100
Bill Brown received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1978 and his graduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1981. Bill has held appointments as an academic research librarian, faculty member, and administrator at Yale University, the University of Miami, and the University of California, Berkeley, before joining UNLV in 2005. He has published a diverse array of scholarly works in American history, literature, politics, and related fields. Bill joined Brookings Mountain West in December 2009.
Alexandra Nikolich alexandra.nikolich@unlv.edu Business Manager Campus Location: 2104 Greenspun Hall Phone: 702-895-0088 Fax: 702-895-0100
Alexandra "Alex" Nikolich joined Brookings Mountain West in and The Lincy Institute in March 2011 as Business Manager. Alex previously served as the Business Manager for UNLV's Office of Enrollment and Student Services. Prior to this position, Alex was employed by the Desert Research Institute as a Program Specialist and Grants Coordinator. Alex possesses a thorough understanding of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) organization and UNLV policies and procedures, and she enjoys an extensive network of contacts throughout the university's academic and business community. Alex is a UNLV graduate with a degree in accounting.
William J. Antholis wantholis@brookings.edu Managing Director, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC Executive Director, Brookings Mountain West Profile
William J. Antholis is managing director of the Brookings Institution, helping Brookings’s President and Vice Presidents manage the full range of policy studies, new initiatives, and outreach efforts. He also continues to research and write on a range of public policy issues. Prior to joining Brookings, Antholis was Director of Studies and Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where he also was project director of the Trade and Poverty Forum, a dialogue of leading private citizens and legislators from the U.S., EU, Japan, India, Brazil and South Africa. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and his B.A. from the University of Virginia.
From 1997-1999, Antholis was Director for G-8 Affairs at the National Security Council and National Economic Council, and also was Deputy Director of the White House Climate Change policy team during the Kyoto negotiations. He also has worked at the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and Bureau of Economic Affairs, and has been an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University. In 1991, Antholis co-founded the Civic Education Project — a nonprofit organization that supports university-reform in 23 transition countries.
Mark Muro mmuro@brookings.edu Washington, DC Director, Brookings Mountain West Director of Policy and Fellow Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution, Washington DC Profile
Mark Muro is a fellow and the director of policy for the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, and research director (Washington, D.C.) of the Brookings Mountain West Initiative. At Brookings, Mark manages the program’s public policy analysis and leads key policy research projects. Muro managed and co-wrote with Robert Lang the landmark study “Mountain Megas: America’s Newest Metropolitan Places.” He is also the author of “MetroPolicy: Shaping a New Federal Partnership for a Metropolitan Nation” and two major reports on the federal stimulus program: “Metro Potential in ARRA: An Early Assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment” and, most recently, “Implementing ARRA: Innovations in Design in Metropolitan America.” These reports represent key elements of the metro program’s Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative, an ambitious multi-year project to build long-term U.S. prosperity by revitalizing the federal relationship with metropolitan areas.
Muro is also the author of recent publications including “Reconnecting Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities: Lessons Learned and an Agenda for Renewal,” “Charting Maine’s Future: An Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Prosperity and a Sustainable Future,” and “Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Renewing Pennsylvania.”
Prior to joining Brookings, Muro was a senior policy analyst at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University. He was also a staff writer for The Boston Globe and an editorial writer for The Arizona Daily Star. Muro is a member of the Citistates Group, a network of journalists, speakers, and civic leaders focused on building competitive, equitable, and sustainable 21st century metropolitan regions. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a master’s degree in American studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
