Grete Gansauer is an economic geographer and interdisciplinary public policy researcher focused on regional development, place-based policy, and the local state in peripheral regions and ‘left behind’ places. Focusing on rural contexts and natural resource production, her research examines regional development and sustainability challenges amidst spatial inequality, and how central policies ‘touch down’ at the regional level. She has held fellowships and visiting appointments with the US Department of Agriculture, National Academies of Sciences in Washington DC, and University of Cambridge. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Communities in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, and she co-organizes EdgeNet, the RSA research network on peripheries and why they matter.