Institute Research Team




Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies
Margaret O’Mara
Joint Venture has named Margaret O’Mara a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies, its research arm. Considered one of Silicon Valley’s foremost expositors, O’Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor at the University of Washington and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. An award-winning historian, she recently published a history of the Valley that is being hailed as definitive, The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019).

Senior Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies
Drew Starbird
Drew Starbird is Senior Fellow for the Institute. He is a frequent contributor to the Institute’s research on hunger and food assistance projects and provides continuing counsel and work on broader initiatives. Professor Starbird is executive director of the My Own Business Institute and a professor in the department of information systems & analytics at Santa Clara University.

Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies
Karen Trapenberg Frick
Joint Venture has named Karen Trapenberg Frick a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies, its research arm. An expert on transportation planning in the Bay Area and beyond, Professor Frick is the director of the University of California Transportation Center and a professor of city and regional planning at the Berkeley campus.











Academic Research Partners
Academic research groups working with the Institute on various regional health topics.
Community Researcher Partners
Partner organizations working on critical data-driven projects and programs affecting our region’s health and quality of life.
unBox Project
