Kyle Metta

I am a system scientist and I study how communities can use systems thinking and modeling to elevate and target positive change efforts. I received my Ph.D. and M.S. in Community Sustainability from Michigan State University and focused my studies on participatory systems modeling, community informatics, and urban studies. I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas. I conduct place-based, problem-oriented research that advances the scholarship on community systems change.

I am interested in contributing to research around participatory modeling and developing community-systems science tool kits, investigating the hard problem of coordinating diverse knowledge, and understanding how information and data can be leveraged by communities in the creation of problem statements and action plans.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Focus: Computational Social Science & Participatory Research

Certificate in Computational Modeling
Specializations: Ecological Food and Farming Systems, Global Urban Studies

Dissertation: Seeing the Rest of the Community: Using Complex Systems to Reveal the Structure and Function of Interdependence

M.S.

Focus: Ecological Economics & Complex Systems Modeling
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Certificate in Environmental & Social Systems Modeling
Thesis: System Drivers of Household Urban Food Insecurity: A Participatory System Dynamics Model from Detroit

B.S. in Environmental & Resource Economics

University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH