Todd Swanstrom, Ph.D.

Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, (UMSL), Todd Swanstrom specializes in urban politics and public policy. He has an MA from Washington University (1971) and a Ph.D. from Princeton (1981). Prior to joining UMSL, Todd taught at Saint Louis University and the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany (SUNY).  He also worked as a neighborhood planner in Cleveland and as the Director of Strategic Planning for the City of Albany, NY.  Todd’s book, The Crisis of Growth Politics:  Cleveland, Kucinich, and the Challenge of Urban Populism (Temple University Press, 1985) won the Best Book Award from the Urban Section and Policy of APSA. His co-authored Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-first Century (U. Press of Kansas, 3rd edition, 2014) won the Michael Harrington Award from the New Politics Section of APSA.  In 2011, he published a co-edited volume, Justice and the American Metropolis (University of Minnesota Press), which develops the idea of “thick injustice.”  He is co-author of a comprehensive theme text in American politics, The Democratic Debate, now in its 7th edition.  Currently, Todd’s research focuses on neighborhood change and the challenges of concentrated poverty and fragmented governance in inner-ring suburbs.  Todd used the resources of his endowed professorship to support the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis, which is working to build great neighborhoods throughout the St. Louis region.  Currently, he is concentrating the resources of his endowment on supporting UMSL’s Anchor Mission to lift up the communities around the campus.