Katie Haugland Bowen.
The Kinder Institute for Urban Research builds better cities and improves people’s lives by bringing together data, research, engagement, and action.
The Kinder Institute for Urban Research is a multidisciplinary think tank housed at Rice University in Houston. Through informed research, data and policy analysis, the Kinder Institute hopes to engage civic and political leaders to implement solutions to critical urban issues, including education, governance, housing, mobility and transportation, resilience, and demographics.
In addition to core research programs, the Kinder Institute partners with affiliates on campus and off, including the Greater Houston Community Foundation’s Understanding Houston project, Rice University’s School of Architecture, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and the Severe Storm Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disasters Center. The Houston Education Research Consortium, which is part of the Kinder Institute, has 11 school district partnerships, including Alief, Cypress-Fairbanks, Friendswood, Houston, Katy and other ISDs. The Kinder Institute also develops partnerships with a wide variety of other universities and think tanks, such as the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, the Urban Institute, the University of Texas School of Public Health, and the National Resource Network.
Created in 2010, the Kinder Institute was endowed with a $15 million gift from Houston philanthropists Richard and Nancy Kinder.
