The Metropolitan Center

Mr. Marco Rubio is a Visiting Distinguished Service Professor for the Metropolitan Center of FIU. In addition to his research activities, he teaches courses on Florida Politics for the newly established School of International and Public Affairs. Mr. Rubio began his political career when he was elected to the West Miami city Commission in 1998. Subsequently, Mr. Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000. He presided over this legislative body from 2006-2008, as the first Hispanic and second youngest Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House is a constitutional office considered to be among the most powerful posts in state government. Mr. Rubio is an active member of the Florida Bar and a practicing attorney with Miami law firm of Broad & Cassel.

Annette Almanza is the Senior Secretary for the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University.

Ms. Kim Cole CPA, Ph.D./ABD is the Deputy Director of the Metropolitan Center. She holds an active Florida license as a Certified Public Accountant. She has over 10 years of experience dealing with federal, state, and local grants as well as other financial matters. She served as a facilitator and presenter for the City of Miami Gardens Education Compact initiative as resolved by the Miami-Dade County School Board. She was also involved in the Outreach Campaign for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for the city of Miami Gardens and will direct this year’s EITC Outreach Campaign for the City of Miami. She also has contributed in the review and updating of the Evaluation and Appraisal Reports (EARs) for the municipalities of Opa-Locka and West Miami. Ms. Cole has twelve years of experience teaching financial modeling, budgeting and accounting at the university level to include governmental and not-for-profit entities. Ms. Cole has taught numerous finance, accounting, strategic planning and management courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. She is presently completing her dissertation for a PhD in Higher Education Administration from the University of South Florida.

Dario Gonzalez, ABD is the Computer Research Specialist for the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. Mr. Gonzalez has over seven years of experience employed as a GIS Analyst. He has contributed to the development of several internet accessible, interactive mapping projects including the Metropolitan Planning Organization's Community Characteristics Mapping Tool and the City of Miami FEC corridor Strategic Redevelopment Plan. Dario Gonzalez is currently completing his thesis, "Effects of Natural Disasters on Fixed Term Residential Mobility Trends."

Amanda Gorski, M.A. Ms. Gorski currently works as a Research Associate at the Florida International University Metropolitan Center. Ms. Gorski has served as Project Manager in various housing, public policy projects related to government quality assurance, urban development and economic impact research studies. Ms. Gorski is currently managing projects and is involved in research and analysis of various urban projects related to demographics, economic development, transportation services, hurricane preparedness and various public policy projects dealing with performance measurement. Some of her most recent research includes: South Florida Workforce Housing Needs Assessment, Comprehensive Needs Assessment of Miami-Dade Community Action Agency, Miami River Marine Industry Economic Assessment and Profile, and Miami-Dade County Departments Quality Assurance Shops. Ms. Gorski currently holds a Masters Degree in Political Science from Florida International University and a Masters Degree from FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) in Sociology and Political Science.

Dr. Maria Ilcheva, Ph.D. Ms. Ilcheva is an experienced researcher and analyst specializing in the administration of surveys, polls and interviews, quality assurance, data analysis and reporting. She has participated in the research and analysis of studies on economic development, housing and homelessness, youth services assessment, health services, and hurricane preparedness. Her ongoing projects include the study on hurricane preparedness in Florida and the annual survey of top women executives in Florida. Ms. Ilcheva is also leading quality assurance projects, including the Miami International Airport vendor secret shops, secret shops of County departments for the Government Information Center and 311 Call Center evaluations. Ms. Ilcheva has completed her dissertation on ethnic politics.

Kerland Jacques is the Training Coordinator at the Metropolitan Center. Her areas of specialization include training and curriculum planning, events management, budget development, committee coordination, formal and informal communications, desktop publishing, data management, and service/product promotion. She received her B.A. in Education with a minor in Business Administration. Ms. Jacques has been part of the Center's staff for 9 years and she oversees all of the Training Departments Administrative issues.

Oliver Kerr, FAICP, is a Senior Research Associate for the Metropolitan Center. He has over 30 years of experience as a planner/demographer with the Miami-Dade County Department of Planning and Zoning. He was responsible for the County's demographic studies program, preparing estimates and projections of population and housing, neighborhood profiles, and studies of Miami's changing ethnic and racial groups. He holds Masters Degrees in City and Regional Planning and in Educational Administration from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. His B.A. degree is from University College in Dublin, Ireland. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a member of the American Planning Association, and a member of the Population Association of America. He has received many awards and commendations for his professional work in Miami-Dade County.

Victoria Lerma, M.A. Ms. Lerma is a Research Associate at the Florida International University Metropolitan Center. Ms. Lerma is co-managing the quality assurance secret shops of Miami International Airport. She has assisted with data collection and analysis for Miami-Dade County Community Action Agency’s 2008 Comprehensive Needs Assessment, the Miami River Marine Industry Economic Assessment and Profile and the County Department Quality Assurance secret shops. She was also involved in a survey project for Miami Dade Cultural Affairs Department concerning their Culture Shock program. She has served as manager on a Customer Satisfaction Initiatives project for the Miami Dade Parks and Recreation Department. Ms. Lerma managed an assessment of workforce housing needs in Miami-Dade County and has assisted with the data collection and analysis of workforce housing needs in South Florida. Her experience also includes telephone surveys, including the 2008 Behavioral Response to Hurricane Mitigation in Florida. She has also conducted an in-depth analysis of the racial disparity in the criminal justice system in Miami-Dade County. Ms. Lerma holds a master’s degree in political science from Florida International University.

Ned Murray, Ph.D., AICP. Dr. Murray is the Associate Director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University in Miami. Dr. Murray is a leading expert on economic and housing market issues in South Florida. He has authored many of the landmark affordable housing needs studies including the leading studies for Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward and Monroe Counties. He was also the Principal Investigator on the Broward County Housing Linkage Fee Nexus Study and Rental Housing Study for Palm Beach and Martin Counties. Dr. Murray has recently completed and presented Housing Market Update and Municipal Scorecard studies for Palm Beach and Broward Counties and the South Florida Workforce Housing Needs Assessment. Dr. Murray developed the “Municipal Scorecard for Affordable Housing Delivery©” model which was used to evaluate affordable housing performance in Palm Beach and Broward Counties.
Dr. Murray also has over twenty years of professional urban planning experience, including 12 years as a former Director of Planning and Development in Massachusetts. He holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Murray has authored and presented numerous papers on economic development, affordable housing and urban planning, including articles published in Economic Development Quarterly (EDQ), the Economic Development Journal, the Journal of Public Affairs Education and the Council for Urban Economic Development’s Commentary.

Dr. Kevin A. Hill is an Associate Professor (Ph.D., University of Florida ); American Government, Comparative Politics, Political Methodology and Epistemology.

Professor Hill received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida in 1993. He has published a book titled Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet, (1998, Rowman and Littlefield) co-authored with John E. Hughes. His most recent journal publications can be found in Politics and Policy (2001), The Journal of Urban Affairs (2001), The Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences (2001), Party Politics (2000) and Democratization (1999). Professor Hill's teaching and research interests focus on elections and campaigns, parties, interest groups, and political communication, both in comparative and American politics. He has published numerous articles on Congressional elections and elite voting behavior in Congress, environmental politics in the developing world, voting rights, political behavior and ethnic minorities, political communication, and public administration, in such journals as The Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Political Communication, Journal of Modern African Studies, Democratization, Human Ecology, The International Review of Administrative Sciences, The Hispanic Journal of Social Science, Environment and History, and The African Studies Review. He has received research grants from the National Science Foundation and was a Fulbright scholar in Zimbabwe in 1992 and 1993. In 1997, he was the recipient of a university-wide teaching award at Florida International University , and in 2001 he received a university-wide advising award. He is currently writing Politics in America's South , a text on southern political history, as well as Miami Politics, a co-authored manuscript with Dario Moreno. Professor Hill has conducted over 70 public opinion polls in South Florida since 1996, and has served as a redistricting consultant and expert witness for the Florida House of Representatives. He has been interviewed by all four broadcast networks, all three major cable news channels (FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC), and many major American and International newspapers and newsmagazines, including The BBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and Newsweek . He is married to Barbara Herrera-Hill, Weston City Commissioner, the only Cuban-American female city commissioner in Broward County .

Dr. Lisa Konczal is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. She is also a consultant for the FIU Metropolitan Center focusing on urban social issues such as immigration, the diverse business community and crime. Dr. Konczal is currently conducting a county-wide survey of business with the FIU Metropolitan Center's City of Miami Targeted Industry Study. Prior to working at Barry University she was a Research Associate at the FIU Metropolitan Center for over two years, while working on her doctorate degree. During that time she conducted surveys for The 79th Street Corridor project and collected/analyzed data for the FEC Corridor Project. Between January and August 2002 she was a post-doc researcher for Princeton University doing an intensive study of immigrants in Miami.

Susan MacManus is the Distinguished University Professor of Public Administration and Political Science in the Department of Government and International Affairs at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She is co-author, with Thomas R. Dye, of Politics in States and Communities, 11 th ed. (Prentice Hall, 2003). Her book, Young v. Old: Generational Combat in the 21 st Century (Westview Press) was designated an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine in 1996. The book contrasted the registration, voting, and participation rates of young and old Americans. Professor MacManus's book, Targeting Senior Voters: Campaign Outreach to Elders and Others With Special Needs , published in 2000 by Rowman and Littlefield, predicted problems with punch card ballots among senior citizens before the election and delineated problems routinely encountered by disabled voters. In 2002, MacManus edited a book titled Mapping Florida's Political Landscape: The Changing Art & Politics of Reapportionment & Redistricting published by the Florida Institute of Government to educate citizens, lawmakers, and the press about the redistricting process and its impacts. In 1991, she edited Reapportionment and Representation in Florida: A Historical Collection . Her comprehensive analysis of voter education in post-election 2000 Florida was published by the University of Michigan Law Reform Journal in 2003. MacManus has also published several local history books with her mother, Elizabeth Riegler MacManus: Citrus, Sawmills, Critters, and Crackers: Life in Early Lutz and Central Pasco County (University of Tampa Press, 1998) and The Lutz Depot: Tales of the "TN", the "Pea Vine," Rail Line Mergers & Spunky Pioneers (2000). MacManus served as Chair of the Florida Elections Commission from 1999 to 2003 and helped the Collins Center For Public Policy, Inc. draft Florida's Help America Vote Act state plan (voter, election official, and pollworker education section) in 2003. She currently sits on the Governor's Council of Economic Advisers. MacManus is past president of the Florida Political Science Association, the Southern Political Science Association, and the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. She is a Florida Institute of Government Reubin O'D. Askew Fellow and the recipient of the prestigious Manning Dauer Distinguished Florida Political Science Award from the Florida Political Science Association, the Southern Political Science Association's Diane Blair Award for Outstanding Achievement in Politics and Government, and the University of South Florida's Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award and the Phi Kappa Phi Artist/Scholar Award. MacManus received her B.A, (1968) and Ph.D. (1975) degrees from Florida State University and her M.A. degree from the University of Michigan (1969)