His primary areas of research involve the planning process, policy and decision making, land use and social justice. Specifically, he studies the differential impacts of land use and social policy decisions on population subsets. He has worked on examining the Growth Management Act and its effects on urban density and has also explored food systems in applied and theoretical contexts. Born is a member of the Regional Food Policy Council of the Puget Sound Regional Council and is a founding member of the Washington State Food System Roundtable. Born is also co-director of the University of Washington Livable City Year program, a community engagement effort that pairs the university and a designated community to work on projects that serve the broad concepts of livability and sustainability. Born earned a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.