• Ph.D. in Community Sustainability, Michigan State University. Focus on Computational Social Science and Participatory Research
• Master of Science (MS) in Community Sustainability, Michigan State University. Focus on Ecological Economics and Social Systems Modeling
• Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Resource Economics, University of New Hampshire

Before joining JMU, I was the Postdoctoral Fellow in Community Systems at the University of Kansas where I used systems science and community informatics to conduct place-based, problem-oriented research that spanned community health, sustainability, and information equity problems.  I have published research on the dynamics of urban food security, social network structures of community change efforts, and methodological articles on participatory modeling, a technique of building simulation models with community stakeholders.

• Sustainability Science
• Applied Complex Systems Science
• Social-ecological systems resilience
• Community informatics & applied computing
• Urban Sustainability & Environmental Justice
• Participatory Research

• Society for Community Research and Action
• System Dynamics Society
• United States Ecological Economics Society

Lawlor, J.A., Metta, K.R., Neal, Z. (in Press) When theory meets practice: Exploring challenges to information sharing networks for community change. Translational Issues in Psychological Research https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000318

Metta, K.R. (2021) Computational approaches to scoping and mapping community knowledge domains. Society for Community Research and Action Biennial

Metta, K.R., Schmitt-Olabisi, L., & Wallace, R. (2021). Participatory system dynamics approach to understanding urban food insecurity. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.028

Lawlor, J.A., Metta, K.R., Neal, Z.P. (2020). Defining coalitions in community psychology: A systematic review. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2554

Metta, K.R., Wallace, R., Schmitt-Olabisi L., (2019) Modeling with Communities: A Tandem Modeling Process to Rapidly Address Community Needs. Society for Community Research and Action Biennial

Mcnall, M., & Metta, K.R. (2019 A Critical Systems Approach to Evaluating Participatory Modeling. Society for Community Research and Action Biennial

Singer, A., Gray, S., Sadler, A., Olabisi, L. S., Metta, K., Wallace, R., ... & Henderson, J. (2017). Translating community narratives into semi-quantitative models to understand the dynamics of socio-environmental crises. Environmental Modelling & Software, 97, 46-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.010