Lyke Thompson

Lyke Thompson has been teaching at Wayne State for about 30 years as a professor in the Department of Political Science and in the former College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs. He has taught program evaluation, urban administration, Detroit Politics, and Michigan Politics. He became the director of Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies in January 2003. During his administration of the Center he has collaborated with staff and community members to expand its capacity for research and intervention into areas including program evaluation, GIS, survey research, public safety, domestic violence, healthy homes, and climate change. The Center works intensively within Detroit and its metropolitan area both to understand urban processes and institutions as well as to improve the lives of Detroit's most challenged households.