Susan Christopherson is a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University where she has taught for eighteen years. She is an economic geographer (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) whose research and teaching focus on: 1) economic development; 2) urban labor markets and 3) location patterns in service industries, particularly the media industries. Her research includes both international and US policy-oriented projects. Her international research includes studies in Mexico, China, Germany, and Jordan as well as multi-country studies. In the past three years she has completed studies on 1) advanced manufacturing in New York’s Southern Tier; 2) the photonics industry in Rochester; 3) the role of universities and colleges in revitalizing the upstate New York economy; and 4) production trends affecting media industries in New York City. Her new book, ‘Re-making Regional Economies: Labor, Power and Firm Strategies in the Knowledge Economy’ (Routledge, 2007) focuses on the limits to innovation in the U.S. economy. She has also written numerous articles for academic journals on subjects ranging from labour standards to the competition between US and Canadian regions for film and TV production.

Her recent work in the field of economic development has concentrated primarily on strategies for revitalizing the economy of upstate New York. In 2006, she was named J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise at Cornell in recognition of her teaching and research in the field of economic development. The Chaired Professorship will enable her to enhance her teaching and research on the creative economy. Professor Christopherson frequently speaks to civic groups about economic development issues and her work has been cited in the New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester Business Journal, and Albany Times Union as well as on U.S. national and local radio and television stations.