Samuel R. Staley is Managing Director of the DeVoe L. Moore Center in the College of Social Sciences at Florida State University. He earned a B.A. in economics and public policy from Colby College, M.S. in Social and Applied Economics from Wright State University, and Ph.D. in public administration with concentrations in urban planning and public finance from Ohio State University.

He has been Bradley Fellow in the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University, Director of Urban and Land Use Policy at the Reason Foundation, Co-Founder and Senior Research Fellow for the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions and Chair of the Planning Board, Chair of the Charter Review Commission, and Member of its Board of Zoning Appeals and Property Review Commission for Bellbrook, Ohio. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Miami Valley School.

Dr. Staley's books include Mobility First: A New Vision for Transportation in a Globally Competitive 21st Century (with A. Moore), The Road More Traveled: Why the Congestion Crisis Matters More Than You Think and What We Can Do About It, Smarter Growth: Market-based Strategies for Land-use Planning in the 21st Century, Drug Policy and The Decline of American Cities, and Planning Rules and Urban Economic Performance: The Case of Hong Kong.

His articles have appeared the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Investor's Business Daily, Journal of the American Planning Association, Housing Policy Debate, Town Planning Review, Journal of Urban Development and Planning, Review of Austrian Economics, Urban Land, Planning, and National Review.