Dr. James Hale is the Research Director of Community Food Systems and Social Sustainability in the Department of Sociology with an assignment to the Metropolitan Agricultural Research Center at Spur. He works with several teams studying the socio-cultural, political, and economic aspects of transitioning to sustainable and equitable food systems. James has a long history working in the Denver area, and the broader region, on community food systems research and practice mostly related to urban agriculture, community gardens, food and agriculture co-operatives, and transitions to sustainability agriculture. He received his PhD in Sociology from Colorado State University and was a postdoc there and at the University of Otago in New Zealand.