Dr. Katherine Richardson is an urban and economic geographer, and an associate professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at San José State University. Her research specializes in the mobility and retention of the internationally highly skilled, and how highly skilled foreigner professionals may influence the growth and change of urban systems. Specifically, Professor Richardson’s work focuses on transnational migrations of highly-skilled immigrants between the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Her book, Knowledge Borders: Temporary Labor Mobility and the Canada-US Border Region, examines the movement of high technology and biotechnology professionals across the Canada-U.S. border under Chapter 16 of NAFTA (now USMCA) in a post 9/11 environment within the binational region of Cascadia, which includes British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon, and portions of Northern California. In addition to academic publications, Dr. Richardson conducted an important study on the mobility and settlement of highly-skilled North Americans across the Canada-U.S. border under NAFTA (now USMCA) for the executive branch of the Government of Canada.
Professor Richardson graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2006 with a Ph.D. in geography, and did a post-doc at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. In addition to her teaching, she is currently working on her second book.
