Jim directs Western Lands and Communities, a joint venture of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Sonoran Institute. This program supports research, tool development, demonstration projects, education, and publications focused on managing growth, sustaining regions, protecting resources, and empowering communities throughout the intermountain west. Additionally, Jim serves on the Board of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District to which he was elected in November 2010. Prior to joining the Sonoran Institute in 2009, Jim directed the Sustainability Partnership in the Global Institute of Sustainability and taught as a Professor of Practice in the School of Sustainability and in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University. He also served as the ASU coordinator for the Arizona Water Institute. Previously, as Assistant Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Jim’s responsibilities included overseeing the state’s Active Management Area, conservation, assured water supply, recharge, well permitting, and groundwater and surface water rights programs. Jim’s principal areas of research, teaching, and practice include western water policy, linkages between water and growth, and land use management. Jim earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Cornell University and both a master’s and Ph.D. in regional planning from the University of North Carolina.