Lowe

Nichola J. Lowe

Professor of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapter Member: North Carolina SSN
Areas of Expertise:

Connect with Nichola

About Nichola

Lowe’s work focuses on the institutional arrangements that lead to more inclusive forms of economic development and specifically, the role that practitioners can play in aligning growth and equity goals. She conducts research in three related areas of economic development. First, she studies workforce intermediaries and the strategies of skill reinterpretation they use to engage businesses in a negotiated process around skill. Second, she focuses on immigrant construction workers and the innovative strategies they and their allies devise to make their contributions to industry upgrading and upskilling more visible and valued. Third, she examines smart approaches to state and local economic development. Combined, this work unpacks the processes and practices that contribute to more equitable and inclusive forms of regional economic development and labor market adjustment.

She has worked on projects for the International Labour Organization, Inter-American Development Bank, Bank of the Northeast Brazil, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance, the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise, the North Carolina Council for Entrepreneurial Development and the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology.

In the News

"Does Doling Out Economic Incentives Create Jobs? A UNC Study Says No," Nichola J. Lowe (with T. William Lester and Mary Donegan), The News & Observer, December 26, 2018.
Nichola J. Lowe quoted by David Adler, "North Carolina’s Promising Experiment" City Journal, March 29, 2018.
"To Thwart HB2 Provision, NC Governments Could Insource Services," Nichola J. Lowe, News and Observer, May 10, 2016.
Guest to discuss the Latino labor force on UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities Faculty Podcast, Nichola J. Lowe, February 22, 2016.
"The Future of Work: Encouraging Employers to Train Workers," Nichola J. Lowe, Pacific Standard Magazine, September 24, 2015.
"Rebuilding the Bridge to the Future: An Analysis of What Works for North Carolina’s Economy," Nichola J. Lowe (with William T. Lester), ThinkNCFirst, July 2015.
"Stoking our Entrepreneurial Economy," Nichola J. Lowe (with Maryann Feldman), News and Observer, February 7, 2015.
"How Finance Gutted Manufacturing," Nichola J. Lowe, Boston Review, April 6, 2014.