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<td style="vertical-align: top;" valign="top">Mr. Nicholas Finio is Associate Director of the National Center for Smart Growth, UMD College Park. At the Center for Smart Growth, Nick leads or is involved in a number of different research projects. One of his primary tasks is to support the Purple Line Corridor Coalition with data, research, and analysis. Recent projects include support for the PLCC's housing action plan, an analysis of underutilised lands in the region, housing research for Montgomery County, and research on national equity projects and indicators. Nick is coordinating work on NCSG's $2 million grant partnership with the Maryland Transit Administration, from the Federal Transit Administration. He is also leading a housing needs assessment project with Maryland's Department of Housing and Community Development.&nbsp;

Past projects included the Center's scenario planning and forecasting project, PRESTO; development of economic analysis of the Purple Line Corridor; organising NCSG's Smart Growth at 20 Conference; and a review of Baltimore's Sustainable Communities Initiative. Nick has collaborated with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy on multiple projects, and works with the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD), NCSG's Irish research partner. He has also taught a URSP course, Community Development.

Nick holds a BA in Economics and a Masters of Community Planning. Currently finalising his PhD, Nick's dissertation is focused on the measurement of gentrification, and investigation of gentrification in the greater Washington DC region and elsewhere. His work focuses on the causes of neighbourhood change. His neighbourhood research is also focused locally on neighbourhood change in the Purple Line Corridor, as massive public investment catalyses neighbourhood change in diverse communities near the University of Maryland in the suburbs of Washington DC.

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Research interests: gentrification, smart growth, regionalism, equity, housing, community development, regional planning

Contact: nfinio@umd.edu

Institutional Profile: http://www.umdsmartgrowth.org/people/nicholas-finio/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-finio-84689b100/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TbHTSMoAAAAJ&amp;hl=en</td>
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