Kyle Shelton is the director of the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies. In this role, he oversees all Center operations, research, education, and partnerships. Shelton has led research and policy work in transportation, urban development, and housing. Shelton has a PhD in American urban history from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Power Moves: Transportation, Politics, and Development in Houston (2017). His own research interests orbit around the intersections of the human, built, and natural environments.
Shelton has written and spoken widely about transportation and development policy. His work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Bloomberg’s CityLab, the Los Angeles Times, The Avenue (Brookings Institution), and the Eno Transportation Weekly.
Prior to joining the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, Shelton was the Deputy Director at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. There he led several research programs and oversaw external partnerships as well as overseeing overall Institute strategy.