Local Government Restructuring Lab

Natassia Bravo is a Ph.D. candidate whose research focuses on multi-level governance in rural broadband deployment in the U.S., with a special interest on the impact of local leadership and state policies. Along with Professor Mildred Warner, Bravo was awarded a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts in 2022 to examine how state broadband programs allocated funds before the pandemic. A report based on their findings, "Closing the Broadband Infrastructure Gap: State Grant Funds and the Digital Divide," was released in October 2023. Bravo and Warner were also awarded the TPRC51 Charles Benton Broadband & Society Prize for their conference paper, "State Grants for Broadband: Implications for Federal Policy Design." Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, Bravo worked on a nationwide research project studying the growth of state preemption of local authority. She is currently researching the role of states in supporting innovative rural broadband projects. Natassia Bravo holds a master's degree in city and regional planning from Cornell University, and a bachelor's degree in architecture from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima, Peru.