Doug Bowles is Associate Director of CEI and lead Geographic Information Systems analyst. He serves as principal representative to neighborhood organizations, while assisting the Director in dealing with other outside organizations, institutions, and entities. He also provides assistance as necessary with grant writing requirements. He joined CEI as a full-time Research Associate in January of 1995 and was named Assistant Director in 2002. In 2005 he completed the requirements for the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Economics and Social Science from UMKC, with publication of a doctoral dissertation titled Geographic Information Systems-based Analysis of Metropolitan Development, Decline, and Recovery, featuring a detailed analysis of development processes in the Kansas City region. He was named Associate Director of CEI in 2009. Dr. Bowles has been a member of the UMKC doctoral faculty since the award of his Ph.D. degree in 2005, and in July of 2006 the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences appointed him to be Director of the Social Science Consortium (SSC). He currently teaches the Capstone Course in Metropolitan Economic Development for the undergraduate Economics program, and the introductory doctoral-level course in interdisciplinary social science for the SSC program of study. He is chief administrator for the SSC, which serves as co-discipline for over sixty doctoral students, and he sits on numerous dissertation committees.