She teaches courses on economic development, urban economy, and public policy. She was a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation-funded research project, “Building Resilient Regions” and also part of a team of researchers assessing the potential of the homeland security economy for community economic development at the St. Elizabeths Hospital site in Southeast Washington, DC. Dr. Cowell’s research has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation, National Association of Counties, and the United States Economic Development Administration. She obtained her doctorate from Cornell University in 2010. She is the author of Dealing with Deindustrialization: Adaptive Resilience in American Midwestern Regions (Routledge 2014).