Myron Orfield

Myron Willard Orfield, Jr.
Orfield speaks at the Sensible Land-Use Coalition in Minneapolis in 2014
BornJuly 27, 1961
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
OccupationLaw Professor
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Minnesota, Princeton University, University of Chicago Law School
Academic work
Notable works"Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability", "American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality", "Region: Planning the Future of the Twin Cities"
Myron Orfield
Member of the Minnesota Senate
from the 60th district
In office
January 1, 2001  January 5, 2003
Preceded byAllan Spear
Succeeded byScott Dibble
Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
from the 60B district
59B (1991-1993)
In office
January 7, 1991  December 31, 2000
Preceded byTodd Otis
Succeeded byScott Dibble
Personal details
Political partyDemocratic (DFL)

Myron Willard Orfield, Jr. (born July 27, 1961) is an American law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, director of its Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity, and a former non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has been called "the most influential social demographer in America's burgeoning regional movement." Orfield teaches and writes in the fields of civil rights, state and local government, state and local finance, land use, questions of regional governance, and the legislative process. He is known for developing a classification scheme for U.S. suburbs (based on stage of development, social stress and fiscal capacity), documenting suburban racial change and resegregation, and for developing innovative regional land use, public finance, and governmental reforms. He is a former member of the Minnesota Legislature, having served in both the state house (1991-2000) and senate (2001-2003) and is the younger brother of Gary Orfield, a political scientist at UCLA.