Leah Brooks

Leah Brooks is a Professor in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University and Director of the Center for Washington Area Studies.  After receiving her PhD from UCLA in 2005, she taught at the University of Toronto and McGill University, and worked at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Her early work examined Business Improvement Districts and land assembly to understand the resolution of collective action problems, analyzed the Community Development Block Grant program to understand the political economy of grant giving at the municipal and sub-municipal levels, and investigated the long-run impacts of streetcar investments in Los Angeles on urban form. She has analyzed whether and why US infrastructure costs have increased, and asked why the redevelopment following Washington, DC’s 1968 civil disturbance took over forty years. She studies the perils and promises of condominiums, and the impact of e-commerce on physical retail establishments.