As Director of Research at the New England Foundation for the Arts, I was a pioneer in the development of research on the creative economy.

My 1996 economic impact report with Greg Wassall, which utilized newly available data from the Internal Revenue Service, had a galvanizing effect on the cultural sector.

We partnered with the New England Council to establish the Creative Economy Initiative – the first in the nation (and before the publication of Richard Florida's work).

In 2005, Greg and I developed a framework for creative economy research, which has set the agenda for subsequent development in the region.

I have recently completed a three-year documentation component of New Dramatists' Full Stage USA initiative.

New Dramatists, a leading playwrights residence program in New York City, received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to collaborate with producing theaters throughout the U.S. on new approaches to develop American theater works.

Using my collaborative documentation framework method, I worked with dramaturge Erica Nagel to develop reflective feedback from the participants.

Heritage Preservation, a national technical assistance organization, saw the need to assess the current state of historical and artistic collections in the U.S.

With funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Heritage Preservation established the first Heritage Health Index.

I worked with RMC Research to develop a rich online survey mechanism, with a set of tools to improve participation.

The significant of the findings led to new funding programs. In 2014, Heritage Preservation conducted a second national survey. This time, the survey mechanism was updated using my MapForms data collection tools.

Working with a national team of anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, and cultural historians, I developed a new collaborative documentation framework for sharing information about sensitive issues surrounding international projects supported by the Ford Foundation.

Over a period of six-years, the documentation team helped participants develop a progressively reflexive dialog that shaped the outcomes of their work.

The model has been successfully applied within initiatives developed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

After the Cambodian Genocide, during which the country's precious cultural heritage was nearly destroyed, the Rockefeller Foundation supported a range of in-country projects in an effort to rebuild Cambodia's arts.

After ten years of cultural funding, the Foundation wanted to assess the progress of the work it had been supporting, and develop a framework for future funding.

Working with U.C. Berkeley anthropologist Katharya Um, I interviewed participants supported by Rockefeller and developed a White Paper with recommendations for funding future work.

Despite years of philanthropic funding to support U.S. tours of artists from other countries, the field had little understanding of the pattern of international touring in both the commercial and nonprofit sectors.

Using a range of data sources to collect information on international touring activity, I used Geographic Information Systems technology to visualize the patterns of international touring in the U.S.

The resulting report, developed with Ann Rosenthal, provided a knowledge-based rationale for strategic funding.

The first comprehensive data warehouse on the creative economy for any region, CultureCount is a web-based data repository developed for the New England Foundation for the Arts that serves the longitudinal analysis of the impact of cultural organizations, businesses, and artists on the regional economy.

The site provides a range of data collection and analytic tools such as interactive graphs and financial spreadsheets. It includes the innovated economic impact calculator that I developed with Williams College economist Stephen Sheppard, which allows communities to analyze the economic impact of creative industries down to the individual organization level.

CultureCount continues to serve NEFA's staff as the source for its creative economic research.

I directed this year-long ethnographic documentation project for the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.

A team of folklorists and photographers documented a year in the life of the city's ethnic communities through sound recording and still image.

The collection is housed at the Library of Congress and at the UMass-Lowell Mogan Cultural Center.