Mildred Warner

Cities across the world are faced with the challenges of fiscal stress, service delivery restructuring, and the imperative to promote economic development. Mildred Warner is an international expert on restructuring local government services, how to plan for more child and age–friendly cities, and how to promote environmental sustainability at the local level. Decentralization has elevated the importance of local government worldwide, but social protection is challenged by devolution, privatization, and fiscal crisis. Cities must pick up the slack and Warner's research explores how. She has authored more than 200 journal articles, book chapters, and professional reports, and has received major research grants from government and foundations. Warner works closely with local government, planners, policy analysts, economic developers, and union leaders both in the U.S. and abroad. She received her B.A in history from Oberlin College, and her M.S. in agricultural economics and Ph.D. in development sociology from Cornell.

Related Pages

• Mildred Warner's Lab Website
• Cornell CALS Department of Global Development Faculty Profile
• Polson Institute for Global Development
• Restructuring Local Government (archived site)

Related News

• Virtual CRP Graduate Open House for Admitted Students, Spring 2024
• NIH-Funded Initiative to Study Health Disparities Among Rural Youth in NY
• States Aligning to Federal Broadband Access Standards, but Barriers Remain
• CRP's Warner and Bravo Named Charles Benton Broadband & Society Prize Winners

Classes (Selected)

• CRP 4120/6120 Devolution, Privatization, and New Public ManagementLocal governments across the world face challenges of infrastructure and service delivery in the context of fiscal constraints. Innovations often involve devolution and privatization. Scholarly research debates whether these market approaches promote efficiency, regional equity, local economic growth and citizen voice. Students will review the theoretical bases for these claims and the empirical evidence from around the world. Students will write theory papers as well as engage in group work on practical policy questions facing cities.
• CRP 5074 Economic and Community Development WorkshopEconomic and Community Development workshop courses focus on the economics of neighborhoods, cities, and regions with the intent of producing more informed and effective economic development policy. Topics of study include, among others, the application of analytical tools needed to produce first-rate economic development plans, the special needs of excluded, poor and segregated communities, use of quantitative and qualitative methods to address social inequalities, the politics of planning, relationships between economic development and community development.
• CRP 7201 Ph.D. Research DesignThis course provides a comprehensive review of the research and writing process to help Ph.D. students develop a strategy for writing a research proposal and journal article. The course provides a comprehensive review of the research design process and will result in each student developing his/her dissertation proposal. The course focuses on articulating research objectives, managing the research process, ethics, funding and professional development as a scholar. The course also explores how to write journal articles (journal selection, review process) and how to position your work in your academic field.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• "Rivers, Rights and the Ecosystem of Urban Life," Global Strategic Collaboration Award, 2024
• "School Based Health Centers — An approach to address health disparities among rural youth," National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health, 2023–2028
• "Aging in Ecuador: Challenges for community planning," Global Strategic Collaboration Award, 2022–2024
• "Rural Population Change and Adaptation in the Context of Health, Economic, and Environmental Shocks and Stressors," USDA Hatch Multistate Project, 2022–2025
• "Universal Broadband Access: The Role of States and Localities," The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2022–2024
• "Local Government, Inequality and Rural Wellbeing" USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, 2021–2025

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• "The Price of Water, Sustainable Solutions Through Advocacy," eCornell Keynote (July 27, 2022) 
• "Aging and Gender Dynamics in Planning," American Planning Association Webinar on "Centering Equity: Framing Effective Approaches." (September 9, 2022)  
• "U.S. Local Government Response to Fiscal Crisis: Austerity Urbanism or Pragmatic Municipalism?" Section on Chinese Public Administration (SCPA) of American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) (July 6, 2021)
• "Planning, Public Health, and Responses to COVID-19," Webinar, College of Art, Architecture, and Planning, Cornell University (September 28, 2020)
• "Driving Innovation to Create Aging-friendly Communities," APA Webinar (June 17, 2020)

Publications (Selected)

• Zhang, Xue, Mildred E. Warner and Gen Meredith (2023). "Factors Limiting US Public Health Emergency Authority during COVID-19," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 38(5): 1569-1582. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3694
• Warner, Mildred E. and Zhang, Xue. 2023. "Representative bureaucracy, age-friendly planning, and the role of gender, public engagement, and professional management," Administration and Society. 55(9): 1738–1757. https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997231183000
• Guillemot, J.R., Warner, M.E. 2023. "Age-Friendly Cities in Latin America: A Human Ecological Framework." Geriatrics 8(3), 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics8030046
• Warner, M.E. (2023). "Pragmatic Municipalism: Privatization and Remunicipalization in the US," Local Government Studies, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2022.2162884
• Warner, M.E. and Zhang, X. (2022). "Joint Use between Communities and Schools: Unpacking Dimensions of Power," Community Development, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1080/15575330.2022.2124529
• Warner, M.E., Kelly, P. M. and Zhang, X. (2022). "Challenging Austerity under the Covid-19 State." Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, special issue on 'The State and the Covid Crisis', forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac032
• Zhang, Xue, Warner, Mildred E., and Grant, Mary. (2021). "Water shutoff moratoria lowered COVID-19 infection and death across US States."  American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(2), 149–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.07.006
• Zhang, X., González Rivas, M., Grant, M., & Warner, M. E. (2022). "Water Pricing and Affordability in the US: Public vs. Private Ownership."Water Policy, 24(3), 500–516. https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2022.283
• Warner, Mildred E. and Xue Zhang. 2021. "Social Safety Nets and COVID-19 Stay Home Orders across US States: A Comparative Policy Analysis," Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 23(2): 176–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2021.1874243.
• Warner, Mildred E. and Zhang, Xue. 2021. "Productivity Divergence: State Policy, Corporate Capture and Labor Power," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society for special issue on "Rethinking the Political Economy of Place." 14(1): 51–68. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaa040
• Complete list of Mildred Warner's publications.