Curriculum Vitae

Kyle E. Walker
Professor and Chair, Department of Geography
Texas Christian University
TCU Box 297280, Fort Worth, TX 76129
kyle.walker@tcu.edu

Publications are listed on the Research page; software on the Software page.

Education

  • 2011 Ph.D., Geography, University of Minnesota
  • 2007 M.A., Geography, University of Minnesota
  • 2005 B.A., Geography and French, Clark Honors College, University of Oregon. Magna cum laude with departmental honors.

Positions

  • 2024- Professor of Geography, Texas Christian University
  • 2022- Chair, Department of Geography, Texas Christian University
  • 2015- Director, Institute for Urban Innovation (formerly Center for Urban Studies), Texas Christian University
  • 2017-24 Associate Professor of Geography, Texas Christian University
  • 2012-17 Assistant Professor of Geography, Texas Christian University
  • 2011-12 Data and Research Analyst, Church Pension Group, New York, NY

Awards and honors

  • 2025 Spatial Impact Award, Atlas
  • 2022 Spatial Data Scientist of the Year, CARTO Spatial Data Science Conference
  • 2011 First Place, Student Paper Competition, Urban Geography Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers (co-winner)
  • 2010 Brown Prize for best graduate student publication, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota (co-winner)
  • 2010 First Place, Student Paper Competition, Political Geography Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers
  • 2009 Second Place, PhD Student Paper Competition, West Lakes Division, Association of American Geographers
  • 2008 First Place, Student Paper Competition, Population Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers

Grants and fellowships

External funding

  • 2026 Sustaining R’s Census Data Infrastructure. R Consortium Technical Grant: $7,000.
  • 2017-23 Demographic Inversion in US Metropolitan Areas. National Science Foundation, Geography and Spatial Sciences Program, BCS-1739662: $283,983.
  • 2009 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, BCS-0902685: $11,333.

Internal funding

  • 2016 Grant Submission Incentive Program, AddRan College, TCU: $5,000
  • 2015 Grant Submission Incentive Program, AddRan College, TCU: $5,000
  • 2014 Instructional Development Grant, TCU: $1,831
  • 2014 Junior Faculty Summer Research Program, TCU Office of Research: $6,000
  • 2014 Research and Creative Activities Fund grant, TCU Office of Research: $3,750
  • 2014 Grant Submission Incentive Program, AddRan College, TCU: $5,000 (with Sean Crotty)
  • 2014 Small grants program, Institute for Urban Living and Innovation, TCU: $2,000 (with Sean Crotty)
  • 2013 Junior Faculty Summer Research Program, TCU Office of Research: $6,000
  • 2012 Small grants program, Institute for Urban Living and Innovation, TCU: $2,000

Graduate fellowships

  • 2010-11 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Minnesota
  • 2009-10 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship, Minnesota Population Center and Graduate School, University of Minnesota
  • 2009 Thesis Research Grant, Graduate School, University of Minnesota
  • 2009 New Initiatives Research Grant, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota
  • 2008-09 Darrell Haug Davis Memorial Fellowship, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota
  • 2008 Graduate Research Partnership Program Fellowship, University of Minnesota
  • 2007 Minnesota Population Center Proposal Development Grant
  • 2007 Summer Research Fellowship, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota
  • 2006 Summer Research Support Grant, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota
  • 2005-06 University of Minnesota Graduate School Fellowship

Workshops and invited talks

  • 2026 Interactive Web Mapping with mapgl. Presentation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
  • 2025 Developing R Packages with LLMs. Presentation to Posit Software.
  • 2025 Analyzing 2023 ACS and 2020 Decennial Census Data with R and mapgl. Workshop series, University of Michigan Social Science Data Analysis Network.
  • 2024 Analyzing 2020 Census and 2022 ACS Data with R. Workshop series, University of Michigan Social Science Data Analysis Network.
  • 2023 Introduction to tidycensus. Presentation to the R Users in Government (Rgovys) interest group.
  • 2023 Analyzing 2017-2021 ACS Data using R and Python. Workshop series, University of Michigan Social Science Data Analysis Network.
  • 2022 Introduction to tidycensus. Presentation to the US Census Bureau.
  • 2022 Using the new 2020 decennial Census and American Community Survey data in R. Workshop series, University of Michigan Social Science Data Analysis Network.
  • 2022 Introduction to tidycensus. Invited workshop, University of Washington Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology.
  • 2021 Accessing and Analyzing US Census Data with R. Workshop series, University of Michigan Social Science Data Analysis Network.
  • 2020 Using Mapbox Tools for Spatial Data Science in R. MasterClass workshop, University of Pennsylvania Master of Urban Spatial Analytics program.
  • 2018 Working with US Census Data in R. Rutgers University Department of Linguistics.
  • 2018 Analyze US Census Data in R with tidycensus. R Group for Biosurveillance, International Society for Disease Surveillance.
  • 2017 Data visualization and the GIS professional. Featured speaker, Texas GIS Forum, Austin, TX.
  • 2017 The inverted city. Invited speaker, Back-to-Class lecture series, TCU AddRan College of Liberal Arts.
  • 2016 Cities and people. Invited speaker, Fort Worth Women’s Policy Forum.
  • 2016 Studying cities with open data. Invited speaker, R.D. Alexander lecture and workshop series, Fort Worth, TX.
  • 2015 Immigration and the “great inversion.” University of North Texas Department of Geography Seminar Series.
  • 2015 Visualizing the changing landscape of US immigration. Invited speaker, New History at Old Red Conference, Dallas, TX.
  • 2015 Data visualization. Invited speaker, Texas Library Association annual conference, Austin, TX.
  • 2015 The art and science of data visualization. Invited speaker, Big 12 Development Conference, Fort Worth, TX.
  • 2014 Interactive data visualization with free and open-source tools. Workshop, R.D. Alexander lecture and workshop series, Fort Worth, TX.
  • 2014 Teaching with interactive data visualization. Koehler Center for Teaching Excellence, TCU.
  • 2013 GIS and the TCU Institute for Urban Living and Innovation. Invited speaker, TCU AddRan Board of Visitors.
  • 2012 Implications of a shrinking church. Invited speaker, Church Insurance Corporation board meetings, Bennington, VT.
  • 2011 Mapping the Episcopal Church. Invited speaker, Episcopal Business Administrators Conference, New York, NY.
  • 2010 What Cather tells us: Contemporary immigration to the Upper Midwest. Willa Cather’s My Ántonia Compleat Immersion program, University of Minnesota Continuing Education.
  • 2010 The variegated landscape of local immigration policies in US metropolitan areas. Minnesota Population Center Seminar Series.
  • 2007 Immigrant settlement patterns in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. TASI Summer Institute on Immigration and Citizenship, Minneapolis, MN.

Conference presentations

  • 2023 Is AI about to unleash an incoming storm of innovation and efficiency in real estate? With Ron Singh and Scott Dunphy. NCREIF Fall Conference, Orlando, FL.
  • 2021 Spatial demography with open source tools. Population Association of America annual meeting (online).
  • 2017 The separate destinations of Millennials in US metropolitan areas. American Association of Geographers annual meeting, Boston, MA.
  • 2015 Immigration and the “great inversion.” Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Chicago, IL.
  • 2014 Locating neighborhood diversity in the American metropolis. Race, Ethnicity, Place conference, Fort Worth, TX.
  • 2014 Destinations of “baby boomer” migrants in US metropolitan areas. Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Tampa, FL.
  • 2013 A geographic classification scheme for high-risk neighborhoods for cardiovascular disease in Texas (with Sean Crotty). American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Dallas, TX.
  • 2013 Evaluating the “demographic inversion” hypothesis. Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Los Angeles, CA.
  • 2012 The role of geographic context in the local politics of immigration in the US. Association of American Geographers annual meeting, New York, NY.
  • 2010 Nationalism, scale, and the local politics of immigration in the US. Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Washington, DC.
  • 2009 The geographical dynamics of political polarization in metropolitan Minneapolis-St. Paul. West Lakes Division, Association of American Geographers, St. Paul, MN.
  • 2009 Suburbia and the localization of immigration policy in the US. Diverse Suburb: History, Politics, and Prospects conference, Hempstead, NY.
  • 2009 The variegated landscape of local immigration policies in the US (with Helga Leitner). Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Las Vegas, NV.
  • 2008 Immigration, suburbia, and the politics of population in US metropolitan areas. Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Boston, MA.
  • 2007 Immigration, politics, and place in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Association of American Geographers annual meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Session organizer and panelist at the Association of American Geographers annual meetings in 2009, 2010, and 2015.

Service

Texas Christian University

  • 2022- Chair, Department of Geography
  • 2020 Interim undergraduate advisor, Department of Geography
  • 2018-19 Chair, geographic data science faculty search committee
  • 2017-18 Member, TCU Research Policy Advisory Committee
  • 2016- Website administrator, Department of Geography
  • 2016-19 Member, TCU Technology Committee
  • 2016-18 Member, Curriculum Committee, AddRan College of Liberal Arts
  • 2015 Member, human-environment geography faculty search committee
  • 2014 Organizer, Data Visualization Faculty Interest Group
  • 2014 Member, economic geography faculty search committee
  • 2012- Geography Curriculum Committee

To the profession

Editorial board member, Focus on Geography and Population Research & Policy Review.

Manuscript reviewer for Urban Studies, Urban Geography, Social Problems, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Urban Affairs Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Applied Geography, Antipode, Health and Place, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Statistical Software, GeoJournal, City & Community, Political Geography, Population Research & Policy Review, Focus on Geography, and Environment and Planning B.