Meet Our Distinguished Fellows

Dr. Caplice is a Senior Research Scientist at MIT and serves as the Executive Director for the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. He created and leads the MITx MicroMaster’s Program in Supply Chain Management for which he was awarded the MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning. He also founded and directs the MIT FreightLab. Outside of MIT, he serves as the Chief Scientist for Chainalytics, a leading analytical supply chain consulting firm.

Dr. Charles’ teaching and research examine physical, social, and economic changes, with a focus on infill redevelopment and mansionization, the financialization of housing and single-family rental housing. Charles previously held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and Northeastern University, and worked as an architect at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris and as a vice president at Booth Hansen Architects in Chicago. Charles is a recipient of a 2021-2022 Fulbright US Scholar award to collaborate with KU Leuven on her comparative study of institutional real estate.

Jim Clayton, Ph.D., is a professor and the Timothy R. Price Chair and Director of the Brookfield Centre in Real Estate & Infrastructure in the Schulich School of Business at York University. The Brookfield Centre fosters a unique learning ecosystem within a community dedicated to academic excellence, experiential learning, alumni engagement, industry outreach and applied thought leadership. Schulich’s new 12-month Master of Real Estate and Infrastructure (MREI) program builds on the School’s long-existing MBA specialization in these areas.

Dr. Mark Eppli has 25 years of academic and administrative leadership experience. He served as Interim James H. Keyes Dean of Business Administration from 2012 to 2015 and was a Professor of Finance and Bell Chair in Real Estate at Marquette University. Currently he is director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is widely published in commercial real estate finance, development, and valuation, and is coauthor of two books.

Julia Freybote is an Associate Professor of Finance and Real Estate in the School of Business at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Her research focuses on investor behavior, information environment and asset pricing in the REIT and commercial real estate market. Prior to joining academia, she gained industry experience in corporate real estate consulting and institutional real estate investment.

Kat Grimsley is the Director of the Masters in Real Estate Development program at the George Mason University. She is responsible for the administration of all aspects of the program including community building, curriculum management, and strategic development. Grimsley began her career in the private sector doing market research, financial modeling, and transactional work with commercial real estate firms in the Washington, D.C. area. She transitioned to a global focus when she accepted a role managing an international property development portfolio for the U.S. Department of State, in which she developed acquisition strategies for diplomatic properties in more than 25 countries and represented the U.S. government in the implementation of each. Grimsley completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge, where her research addressed global tenure and title insecurity by uniting policy with existing international best practices and technological capacity in the context of global administrative solutions. Her ongoing research is related to this theme and has been presented at the World Bank and United Nations. Currently, she serves as an advisory board member and Vice-Chair of the United Nation's Economic Commission for Europe's Real Estate Markets Advisory Group under the Committee of Urban Development, Housing, and Land Management. She has served as a NAIOP Distinguished Fellow since 2018.

Dr. Mariya Letdin is an associate professor of real estate at Florida State University’s College of Business. Dr. Letdin also serves as the faculty advisor to the FSU Student Real Estate Investment Fund. Prior to pursuing her academic career, Dr. Letdin worked in commercial real estate banking, including JP Morgan’s CMBS group. Dr. Letdin’s research is primarily focused on commercial real estate, debt, and market friction. Her work has been sponsored by Nareit and Real Estate Research Institute. Dr. Letdin has an active consulting practice on Real Estate Investment Trusts. Dr. Letdin and her FSU colleagues organize research symposia with accompanying special issues of academic journals such as Journal of Regional Science and Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. Dr. Letdin serves on the editorial board of Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, on the advisory board of Real Estate Research Institute and on the board of directors of the American Real Estate Society.

Keven McGhan is an instructor in the JR Shaw School of Business at NAIT in Edmonton, Alberta. As part of his role, McGhan develops mutually beneficial partnerships between the JR Shaw School of Business and industry. As an instructor, he teaches a fourth-year capstone course where students work on applied research, environmental analysis, and implementation strategies for industrial partners. He also teaches a Sales Management class where students resolve live cases presented by industry partners. McGhan is the Faculty Advisor for Enactus NAIT and the NAIT Students Case Completion Club.

Glenn R. Mueller, Ph.D., has 45 years of real estate industry experience, including 38 years of research. He is internationally known for his market cycle research on income producing real estate, his real estate securities analysis (REITs) research and his public and private market investment strategies and capital markets analysis. A professor at University of Denver’s F.L Burns School of Real Estate & Construction Management, and the academic director of the Family Office Real Estate Institute at DU, he teaches and does research in real estate market cycles, development, feasibility, investments and real estate capital markets (Institutions, REITs & CMBS). He has published 100+ research articles and 110+ quarterly issues of his Real Estate Market Cycle Reports. He is also the Real Estate Investment Strategist at Black Creek Group where he provides Real Estate Market Cycle Research and Investment Strategy for Black Creek’s Institutional Real Estate Investment Groups, Non-Traded and Public REIT groups.

Anthony Pennington-Cross is the Bell Chair Professor in Real Estate in the College of Business Administration at Marquette University and a faculty member at the Homer Hoyt Institute. He sits on the boards of the American Real Estate Society and the Milwaukee Global Health Consortium. Pennington-Cross is widely published in academic journals such as Real Estate Economics. Recent research includes the impact of Airbnb on crime, the spatial clustering of gas stations, and models of mortgage loss. Prior to joining Marquette University Anthony was a Senior Economist in the Research Division at The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Dustin C. Read, Ph.D./JD serves as the Director of the Master of Real Estate Development Program at Clemson University. His research interests include affordable housing, land use policy, and public-private partnerships. His research can be found in leading academic journals in his field including the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, and Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Read frequently consults with both public and private sector organizations to promote socially responsible real estate development.

Dr. Spenser Robinson serves as an Associate Professor and Director of Real Estate at Central Michigan University, is co-Editor for the Journal of Sustainable Real Estate and serves on the executive committee of the American Real Estate Society. He consults, researches, speaks and serves as an expert on appraisal, capital markets, entrepreneurship, finance, investment, sustainability and valuation. His internationally recognized research can be found in leading real estate and built environment journals.

James D. Shilling is the George L. Ruff Endowed Chair in Real Estate Studies at DePaul University. Professor Shilling has been active in applying economic and finance research to the real estate industry. Prior to DePaul University, Professor Shilling was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, Cambridge University, and Louisiana State University. Professor Shilling also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the University of Melbourne, Australia and worked for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

Mark Stapp is the Fred E. Taylor Professor of Real Estate and Executive Director of Real Estate Programs in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He has also served as a faculty associate in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU. In November 2011, Stapp was named a NAIOP Distinguished Fellow. Stapp has over 40 years’ experience planning, designing, developing, investing in and advising about real estate.

Zhou Yang is an Associate Professor of Economics at Robert Morris University. Her research interests include state and local tax policy, land value taxation and industrial organization. She has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Housing Economics, Economic Modelling and National Tax Journal, among others. Prior to her time in the United States, she worked on economic development policies and industrial planning in China. Her current research focuses on public policy related to real estate. She is also interested in various issues related to real estate and industrial policy in general.