Dr. Manuel Pastor is a professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He heads the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC and USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII). He also sits on the board of PolicyLink. He is in charge of creating studies that claim closing racial inequities can bring significant economic windfalls for counties and cities, although some economists have argued that the science behind these studies is dubious at best.