Mildred Warner

Dr. Mildred E. Warner is a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and Department of Global Development at Cornell University where her work focuses primarily on local government service delivery, economic development and planning across generations.  Dr. Warner's research explores the impact of privatization and devolution on local government and the role of human services as part of the social infrastructure for economic development.  Her work shows potential for market based solutions in public service delivery but also raises cautions about the uneven incidence of market approaches in depressed inner city and rural areas.  Her work on planning across generations explores new community development models for addressing human services and linking the needs of children and elders. Her work on on local government economic development policy focuses also on the potential linkages to environmental sustainability action. 

Dr. Warner is author of over a hundred publications including articles in top journals such as Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Public Administration, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Rural Sociology.  Research on privatization and costs published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management in 2010 (with G. Bel and X. Fageda) received the 2011 Best Article Award from the Academy of Management - Public and Nonprofit Division. 

Dr. Warner has received major research grants from the US Dept. of Agriculture to study the links between economic development and environmental sustainability, planning across generations, shared service delivery among local governments and with school districts, and the impacts of devolution and privatization on local governments. Grants from the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Peppercorn and W.K. Kellogg Foundations have supported exploration of the links between economic development and child care. Dr. Warner has a strong extension orientation and consults widely with local government and union leaders on local government reform, and with child care policy makers and business leaders on economic development strategies to support social infrastructure. Recent work has taken her to Canada, Italy, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Ecuador, Bulgaria, Slovakia, China and Singapore.  She is a Research Affiliated Scholar with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and a Research Associate with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC where she spent her sabbatical in 2005. Prior to her professorship at Cornell, she served as a program officer with the Ford Foundation in NYC and as Associate Director of Cornell's Community and Rural Development Institute.

Recent publications in Global Development

• Warner, Mildred E. 2018 Un Buen Lugar en Tungurahua: Estrategias Familiares de un Pueblo Rural, Quito, Ecuador: FLACSO and Abya Yala.  ISBN: 978-9942-09-490-2. Pdf available for free download.
• Zhang, Xue, Mildred E. Warner and Elaine Wethington, 2020. Can age friendly planning promote equity in community health across the rural-urban divide? International Journal of Environmental Research and PublicHealth, 17(4): 1275-91.
• Kim, Yunji and Mildred E. Warner 2020. “Pragmatic Municipalism or Austerity Urbanism? Understanding Local Government Responses to Fiscal Stress,” Local Government Studies, published early view. 
• Turesky, Marisa and Warner, Mildred E. (2020). “Gender Dynamics in the Planning Workplace: The Importance of Women in Management,” Journal of the American Planning Association, 86(2): 157-170. 
• Mann, Cory L. and Mildred E. Warner. 2019. “Power Asymmetries and Limits to Eminent Domain: The Case of Missoula Water’s Municipalization,” Water Alternatives, 12(2): 725-737.
• Tse, Allison and Mildred E. Warner 2020. “Comparing Policy Outputs and Outcomes: Does SIB Market Discipline Narrow Social Rights?” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 22(2): 134-152.
• Warner, Mildred E. and Xue Zhang, 2019.  “Planning Communities for All Ages,” Journal of Planning Education and Research, forthcoming.  doi.org/10.1177/0739456X1982805
• Homsy, George C., Lu Liao and Mildred E. Warner, 2019. “Sustainability and Disaster Planning: What are the Connections?”  Rural Sociology, 84(3): 516-540.
• Pratt, Eleanor E. and Warner, Mildred E. 2019. “Imagining the “Good Place”: Public Services and Family Strategies in Rural Ecuador,” Rural Sociology, 84(2), 284-314. 
• Clifton, Judith,  Daniel Díaz-Fuentes and Mildred E. Warner 2016. The Loss of Public Values when Public Utilities Go Abroad, Utilities Policy, 40: 134-143.
• Gonzalez, M. Beers, K., Weber-Shirk, M., and Warner, M. (2014). “Analyzing the Potential of Community Water Systems--The Case of AguaClara" Water Policy, 16 (2014) 557–577. 
• Liao, Lu, Warner, Mildred E., and Homsy, George C., "Sustainability’s Forgotten Third E: What Influences Local Government Actions on Social Equity?" Local Environment, 1197–1208 (2019)
• Aldag, Austin, Kim, Yunji, and Warner, Mildred E., "Austerity Coalitions or Pragmatic Municipalism? Local Responses to Austerity in New York State," Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 51, no. 6, 1287–1305 (2019)

A complete list of Mildred Warner's publications is available on her Google Scholar page or on her website.

• “Promoting Age Friendly Communities,” Engaged Cornell Impact Grant, $50,000. 2020-2022.
• “Preemption – Local Government Perspectives,” Rockefeller Family Fund, $15,000. 2019-2020.
• “Age-Friendly Rural Communities – Linking Economy, Planning, Services and Health,” $500,000. USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural and Food Research Initiative Competitive Program, Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities, grant # 2019-68006-29674, April 2019-March 2022, with Elaine Wethington and Xue Zhang at Cornell, and Dreamal Worthen and Gail Randolph at Florida A and M University.
• “Local Government Fiscal Stress in New York State,” Engaged Cornell Opportunity Grant 2018-19, $5000.
• “Livable Communities for All Ages: International Planner Engagement and Best Practices,”A Research Grant from the APA Divisions Council to the APA International Division, AARP and Cornell University, $7,000. 2018.
• “Creating Age Friendly Roman Neighborhoods,” Engaged Cornell Opportunity Grant, Cornell in Rome, $5000, March 2017-March 2018.
• State Policy and Local Fiscal Stress: Implications for Rural Governments, $500,000. USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural and Food Research Initiative Competitive Program, Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities, grant # 2017- 67023-26226 with Linda Lobao, Ohio State University and Yunji Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison. April 2017-March 2020.
• Social Impact Bonds – Comparing US and European Experience, $4300, Luigi Einaudi CIES Faculty Innovation Grant, 2017.
• Supporting Sullivan Seniors Planning Project, $20,000, with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Sullivan County, Engaged Learning and Research, Cornell University, March 2016-2017.
• Understanding the Impact of Austerity on New York’s on Local Governments, with Yunji Kim,
• $5000, Cornell Institute for Social Sciences, March 2016-2017. $7500, Fiscal Policy Institute, 2016-2017.
• NYS Union of Teachers, New York State Municipal Conference and Research on Tax Policy and Community Well-being Indicators, $25,000 with CaRDI – Rod Howe and John Sipple, Dec 2014-March 2015.
• Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, Hatch and Smith Lever Programs, Fiscal Stress and Local Decisionmaking: Options for NYS municipalities and School Districts, with John Sipple, $76,500, Grant # 1597422, 2014-2017.
• Cornell Jeffrey S. Lehman Fund, Local Government Role in Promoting Sustainability? What Can the US and China Learn from Each Other? $20,000, with Zhilin Liu and Ciqi Mei, Tsinghua University. 2014-2016.
• Cornell Institute for European Studies, Luigi Einaudi Chair Innovation Grant, $6000, Addressing the Public Infrastructure Crisis: Comparative US and European Perspectives, with Judith Clifton, Daniel Diaz-Fuentes and Richard Geddes, 2014-15.
• Agricultural and Food Research Initiative Competitive Program of the USDA, National Institute for Food and Agriculture, Rural Sustainability: Linking Economics And The Environment, $495,168 with George Homsy, SUNY Binghamton, 2014-2018.  Grant # 2014-68006-21834.
• American Planning Association, Planning through a Gender Lens: Inclusive Planning for Aging and Liveable Communities, $3000. With Planning and Women Division of APA. 2013-present.
• Cornell Population Program, Suburbs: Changing Construct, New Definitions, One semester research assistantship ($29,000).  Co-PI with David L. Brown.  Fall 2013.
• USDA, National Institute for Food and Agriculture.  $499,094, Great Recession, Fiscal Stress And Demographic Transformation – Implications For Rural Service Delivery And Multi-Generational Planning, with David Brown (co-PI), Grant # 2011-68006-30793 2011-2014.
• Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, Hatch and Smith Lever Programs, $105,000, for Inter-governmental Cooperation: A Strategy for Rural New York Governments, with John Sipple (co-PI). 2011-2014.
• Cornell Population Program, Great Recession, Fiscal Stress and Demographic Transformation – Implications for Rural Service Delivery and Multi-Generational Planning, One semester research assistantship ($29,000).  Co-PI with David L. Brown.  Fall 2011.

Local Government Fiscal Stress

New York State's local governments have come under increasingly high levels of fiscal responsibility in recent years, resulting in stress for local governments. Through analysis of economic trends, focus groups and statewide surveys, we explore causes and responses to fiscal stress.

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Preemption

States and local governments have historically competed for power and resources, but in recent years there has been a new wave of state preemption of local authority. These preemptions limit local initiative in regulation for public health (smoking, gun control, sugary drinks), environment (land use controls, right of way), economic equality (minimum wage and worker protections), human rights (sanctuary cities and anti-discrimination) and new emerging sectors (5-G, broadband, ride sharing and home sharing), and limit fiscal authority (tax and expenditure limitations). Local government is on the forefront of addressing these issues, but states can restrict local government action.  Our reports look at the changing nature of preemption and how local governments are responding.

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Planning Across Generations

The needs of families with young children and seniors wanting to age in place are not adequately addressed in many communities. Children and seniors have unique requirements relating to housing and neighborhood design, parks and recreation, and transportation. Communities that address these needs benefit both socially and economically. This section gives practicing planners the background and tools they need to implement family-friendly initiatives. Multi-generational planning is based on inclusive design, shared services, and a common vision to meet the needs of all residents. 

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Sustainability

Local governments can take a leadership role in promoting sustainability. We have seen this with some big cities. But cities leading in sustainability policy action only account for a small proportion of the local governments across the US.  In this project, Dr. Mildred Warner, and Dr. George Homsy, Professor of Public Administration at Binghamton University have set out to understand the drivers and barriers to sustainability policymaking among the full range of local governments across the nation, with research funding from the National Institute for Food and Agriculture of the USDA.

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