Grant is an AICP certified practicing urban planner in the San Diego region, with eight years of experience in current and long-range planning and currently works on housing policy for a local municipal government. He has a strong background in cooperatives, having contributed to a published article on municipal support for worker cooperatives in the United States while on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He co-presented on the subject to the California Center for Cooperative Development in 2020 with Kirk Vartan and has worked with the City of San Diego’s Economic Development Department to create workshops on worker, food and housing cooperatives. Grant co-founded the San Diego Community Wealth Building Coalition with Dr. Newton to support and expand community land trusts and housing, worker, and food cooperatives. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in economics and a Master’s in Urban Planning and Policy from UIC.

Dr. Josh Newton is currently a Researcher in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Arlington. His research draws on critical theories to examine the outcomes for low-income urban communities of neoliberal governance, policy, and interventions. His research includes work on the impact of philanthropic community development initiatives; housing precarity and grassroots solutions in informal subdivisions in the United States; and alternative ownership models such as community land trusts and housing cooperatives. Josh has taught courses at University of California, San Diego, San Diego State University, and University of Texas at Arlington on race/ethnicity, the history of U.S. urban communities, history of urban planning, urban planning and design theory, and public policy. Finally, Josh co-founded the San Diego Community Wealth Building Coalition with Grant Ruroede to support and expand community land trusts and housing, worker, and food cooperatives.