Inland Center for Sustainable Development

Qingfang Wang, Ph.D.

Internal Director & Professor of Public Policy

Dr. Wang joined the ICSD as our Internal Director in 2019. She received her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Georgia in 2005 and her M.S. from the Central University of Finance and Economics, China in 1997. Dr. Wang's research area lies broadly in immigration, labor market, and development. Her recent work includes research on immigrant, ethnic and female entrepreneurship, and transnational migration of the highly skilled, especially in the higher education sector.

Rick Bishop

External Director & Fmr. Executive Director of the Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG)

Rick Bishop serves as co-director of the Inland Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) which operates as one of four centers within the School of Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside. ICSD’s objective is to be a network center, honest broker, resource and important leader in public analysis and decision-making for local and regional decision-makers as they identify and focus on critical topics and issues related to the inland region’s future growth.

Rick is also a Vice President of Acquisitions for National CORE, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit affordable housing developers. National Core has developed more than 120 properties across the U.S.

Rick recently retired as Executive Director of the Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG) and the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency (RCHCA), where he served in this capacity for nearly 21 years. In this position Rick was responsible for developing and implementing a number of regional programs in diverse areas such as transportation, energy, environment, growth, and the economy.

Rick has worked in both the private and public sectors, managing entitlement projects for wireless communications, overseeing County legislative programs, negotiating public facilities development agreements, preparing fiscal impact reports for development projects and ensuring appropriate project mitigation of impacts on public infrastructure.

Ronald Loveridge

Deputy Director & Professor of Political Science

Dr. Loveridge has taken an active role in our Center since 2013. Dr. Loveridge served the City of Riverside for 33 years, as a City Councilman from 1979 to 1994 and as its Mayor from 1994 to December 2012. As Mayor, he taught one course a year at UCR. "Local Leadership in California." He now focuses his attention on the research related to the growth of the suburbs, public policy, urban planning, transportation, air quality and the intersection of cities and natural lands. Loveridge earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from Stanford University.

Kristen Kopko

Research Manager

Kristen Kopko joined ICSD as a Public Policy Analyst in 2019 and has been the center's Research Manager since 2020. From 2021 – 2023 she worked as a part-time Research Manager at ICSD while pursuing her graduate studies in Public Policy. Prior to working for ICSD, she was an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kristen has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Departmental Honors in Research. She received her Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 2023.

Shayna Conaway

Contract and Grant Analyst

Shayna Conaway joined ICSD in 2004 as the Finance and Event Manager. More recently, her role has expanded to include contract and grant administration for the School of Public Policy, in addition to her work with the Centers. Before joining the Center, she worked as a Financial Analyst in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Dean's Office at UCR where she assisted with the financial management of the Center from its inception. Prior to coming to Riverside, Shayna worked in mortgage banking finance. She received her B.A. degree in Sociology from California State University, Fresno in 1992.

Shengxiao (Alex) Li, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher

shengxil@ucr.edu / lsx@uoregon.edu

Personal Website

Shengxiao (Alex) Li joined the School of Public Policy and ICSD as a postdoctoral researcher in July 2022. He obtained his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania in May of 2022 and holds a master's degree in urban and regional planning, and bachelor's degrees in urban management and economics all from Peking University in China. As an interdisciplinary urban planning scholar, his research focuses on sustainable development and urban equity issues, with a focus on transportation planning and policies. Another line of his research centers on the planning implications in an aging society. While at ICSD, his research attempts to bridge the planning practice and scholarship and understands planning practices that can simultaneously advance sustainable development and social equity in the Inland Empire region.

Christina Chu

Graduate Research Assistant

christina.t.chu@email.ucr.edu

Christina Chu is a current Master of Public Policy student at the UCR School of Public Policy. She received her Bachelor's degree in Health and Human Biology at Brown University in 2018. Previously, she was a research assistant on NIH studies focused on HIV prevention including interventions to promote pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake at a HIV/STI clinic in Rhode Island. Most recently, Christina was a data and policy analyst supporting health policy research for clients including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In her future career, Christina is interested in advocating for anti-poverty policies and strengthening the U.S. social safety net.