Trained as a rural sociologist, his work focuses on the relationship between rural school and community well-being, as well as rural poverty and social inequality. He directs the Center on Rural Education and Communities where he also edits the Journal of Research in Rural Education. His book, Rural People & Communities: Resilience and Transformation, co-authored with David Brown, was published by Polity Press in 2011. The volume Rural Education for the Twenty-first Century: Identity, Place, and Community in a Globalizing World, co-edited with Alecia Jackson, was published by Penn State Press in 2010. He is currently taking part in research funded through the Center for Rural Pennsylvania that examines the multiple community impacts of Marcellus development in Bradford, Lycoming, Washington and Greene Counties in Pennsylvania.