Kieran Donaghy's research and teaching focus on issues of globalization, development ethics, climate change and environmental policy, macroeconomic modeling, regional planning, infrastructure systems, and international conflict resolution. He is the departing faculty director of economic development at Cornell's Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the European Commission, research departments of several European central banks, and other international, state, and federal agencies. Donaghy was the executive director of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) from 1997 to 2003 and was elected as a fellow of the RSAI in 2015.