Below is a list of our current student community within the Master of City Planning program for the 2019-20 academic year. For student contact information, please search the UC Berkeley Online Directory.
| Name | Research Interests/Specializations |
| Josie Ahrens | Social Justice and Racial Equity in Transportation Planning, Policy, and Financing, Culturally Complete Streets, Public Space and Social Movements, Community Organizing and Engagement, Emerging Mobilities, Safe and Accessible Streets for All |
| Mona Al-Abadi | Affordable housing, real estate development, wealth building strategies for recipients of housing vouchers |
| Alejo Alvarado | Affordable housing, urban displacement, transportation equity, public transportation, international development, environmental justice, social movements, spatial analysis |
| Brenda Amboy | Public housing, digital inclusion, housing policy in the U.S., city planning, economic and community development, civic engagement in low-income and communities of color, affordable housing, social equity and justice. |
| Jazmin Amini | Transportation and Mobility, Active Transportation, Public Spaces, Urban Design, Public-Private Partnerships, and "Human Scale" Planning |
| Kenji Anzai | Construction, operation, and integration of different modes of public transportation; system dynamics of public transportation as a whole and its relationship to the surrounding lands. |
| Cynthia Armour | Public Policy, Sustainable Cities, Environmental Justice, Community Development |
| Juanita Ballesteros | Transportation and mobility alternatives, pedestrian and bike friendly cities, and cities in emerging countries |
| Alberta Bleck | Growing cities, specifically the forces of change at work, how this change is experienced by city-dwellers, and ways government and communities can plan for equitable, sustainable, and innovative futures grounded in an understanding of shared history and the values of inclusive growth. |
| Tyler Brown | Agriculture, climate change, social justice |
| Lucia Calderon | Community-based food systems, environmental justice, healthy soils, participatory action research, climate change resiliency |
| Ryan Canavan | Healthy cities; city planning as chronic disease prevention; active transportation and public transit; food retail environments; racial and socioeconomic equity and justice |
| Letitia Carpenter | Environmental planning, environmental justice, social justice, policy, community enhancement and enrichment |
| Andrea Carranza | Environmental and social justice, sustainable cities, urban agriculture, food apartheid, our relationship with the environment, climate change, GIS |
| Melody Chang | Anthropology of bureaucracy and the state; civic participation, citizenship and identity; port cities and waterways; public art and monuments; urban geography and mapping; participatory and civic design processes; and the intersection of planning and criminal justice reform outcomes |
| Michael Coulom | Economic and community development, emergency response planning, public involvement, participatory mapping, environmental and social justice, refugees and displaced communities, post-conflict planning, public space |
| Kanaad Deodhar | Transportation Planning, Public Policy, Urban Analytics |
| Kamene Dornubari-Ogidi | Smart cities infrastructure: urban corporate surveillance, privatization & impacts on community self determination; community control and participatory governance; urban design & economic development; grassroots anti-gentrification mobilizations & alternatives |
| Anna Driscoll | Revitalization and economic development, alternative transportation, community engagement in planning, small-city livability, affordable housing, urban refugee resettlement, placemaking |
| Kevin Dumler | Climate, housing, and transportation interdependencies; politics of urban housing supply |
| Ethan Ebinger | Transportation planning, travel demand modeling, geospatial analysis, sustainable communities and development, active transportation, public transit |
| Elena Eimert | Community engagement, affordable housing finance, mixed-income development, and equity in urban spaces/resources. |
| Erika Foster | Community resilience, community health, food equity and urban agriculture, civic participation, grassroots city planning; closed loop cities |
| Jamon Franklin | Income inequality, anti-displacement, affordable housing, health equity, sustainable cities, environmental justice, community development, green spaces |
| Amanda Fukutome-Lopez | Built environment and health; violence reduction through built environment interventions; participatory planning; environmental justice; economic and community development; climate adaption planning; gentrification and displacement; food security |
| Isa Gaillard | Sustainable, resilient and regenerative cities, urban agriculture, access to healthy water, new mobility, community based planning, and indigenous land rights. |
| Dori Ganetsos | Affordable Housing, Community Stabilization Strategies, Gentrification & Displacement, Housing Policy, Project Finance, Racial Equity, Real Estate Development |
| David H. Garcia | Access to green spaces and well-being; equitable economic and community development; transformation of coastal, rural, and agricultural communities; global and comparative planning; environmental justice; urban design; participatory approaches |
| Aaron Gatdula | Sustainability; Urban Ecology; Landscape Ecology; Environmental Planning; Environmental Justice; Food Equity; Transportation Equity; Informal Transit in the Global South; Southeast Asian Studies; GIS and Urban Informatics |
| Lex Gelb | Participatory planning, spatial justice, affordable housing development, equitable public spaces, access to recreational facilities, history of the built environment |
| Gary Gerbrandt | Achieving equity and justice in the built environment, with a focus on affordable housing and transit planning to meet community needs |
| Beatriz Guerrero | Urban planning and health equity for vulnerable populations. |
| Matthew Gutierrez | Sustainable development, climate resiliency, urban ecology, urban agriculture, active transportation, placemaking |
| Jeremy Halpern | Transportation policy, planning and engineering: megaproject management, bus rapid transit systems, travel demand modeling, equity and displacement modeling |
| Carson Hartmann | Neighborhoods and wellbeing; planning responses to growth, and ensuing displacement and segregation; policy development and evaluation; geospatial and statistical analysis |
| Rourke Healey | Active transportation, healthy cities, community-based planning, regenerative and biophilic urban design |
| Meg Heisler | Housing decommodification, gentrification and anti-displacement strategies, community-led planning |
| Max Heninger | Affordable Housing Finance and Policy, Real Estate, Transit Oriented Development, Land Use Planning |
| Mariela Herrick | Public-Private Partnership, Economic Development, Public Policy, Health Equity, Community based planning |
| Rachel Heydemann | Community-centered, participatory, environmentally sustainable urban planning practices; race, equity and social justice; anti-displacement, pro-density strategies and affordable housing development; homelessness and rising wealth inequality; storytelling, identity and placemaking; emergent design; improved regional governance; policy, advocacy and civic engagement |
| Matthew Hui | Transportation Planning; Public Transportation; Active Transportation; Transportation Systems in the US and Abroad |
| Armando Illescas | City and Regional Planning in Community Development, Healthy Cities and Affordable Housing. Infrastructure, Community building networks between Private finance developers and grassroots movements to create cohesiveness in social and financial equity for communal economic development along with community participatory planning. Comparative Global and Domestic analysis in regards to displacement vs anti-displacement social movements, and informality in Advanced Economies and Emerging/Developing Economies. Geo-spatial Analysis, spatial and environmental justice. |
| Jessie Jaeger | Building healthy, sustainable communities with a key focus in regional and local air quality and multimodal transportation planning. Additional interests include assessing impacts to sensitive communities, improving the quality of life within the urban environment, and evaluating the environmental impacts of global climate change on developing and developed countries. |
| Anaïse Jean-Philippe | Displacement, affordable housing, income and racial inequality, international development |
| Felicia Jiang | Urban design as it relates to: sustainability, racial equity and social justice, affordable housing, community engagement, urban renewal, informality |
| Michael Clyde Johnson | Urban Design, Public Space Design and Theory, Spatial Justice |
| Emily Kaner | Relationships between everyday environments and health behaviors |
| Tiffany Kang | Racial and economic justice; participatory planning; immigrant and refugee communities; youth and formerly incarcerated populations; movement building; urban artistic production / culture-keeping |
| Clay Kerchof | Climate adaptation; natural hazard mitigation; climate and disaster resilience; disaster recovery; sustainable land use; housing affordability; expanding housing supply; economic opportunity; community engagement and coalition building |
| Jennifer Kim | Community-based participatory planning, affordable housing and anti-displacement, inclusive/equitable development, community land trust models, social and environmental justice, sustainable urban design, land use policies, resilience and adaptation planning |
| Anisha Kimble | Urban Design, Transportation, GIS Accessibility Analysis and ADA Compliance in Public Space. |
| Natalie Koski-Karell | Urban design, arts/humanities/cultural connections to urban planning, community economic development, land use law, equity |
| Elliot Kwon | Mass Housing Design and Policies, Community-Led Planning, Public Space Design, Placemaking, Modern Korean Architecture and Planning |
| Eunice Kwon | Community ownership, participatory governance, cooperative economies, ethnic and racial community formation |
| María de Jesús Lara-Lemus | Community Development, Public Art, Food Systems, Racial and Economic Segregation, Health Disparities and Environmental Racism. |
| Maggie Laush | Affordable housing, stimulating mixed-income communities, public-private partnerships, and effective public spaces |
| Ryan Laws | Transportation Planning, the effects of autonomous vehicles on regional economies |
| Janet Le | Urban design, democratic urban design, historic preservation, re-purposing infrastructures, community-based planning and development, community resilience, social justice, placemaking, civic engagement, urban studies in race and ethnicity, people of color activism, geographic information systems and design as critical map-making. |
| Amiel Leaño Atanacio | Housing Policy, Anti-Displacement Strategies, Equity & Social Justice, Public Housing, Community Land Trusts, Community & Economic Development |
| Sarah Lebu | Urban and slum health; Healthy cities; Water, sanitation and nutrition for the urban poor; Scaling of public health programs through city-wide planning and policy; Private-public partnership approaches to scaling programs. |
| Donna Leong | Health in all policies, age-friendly planning, and multimodal transportation financing |
| Audrey Lieberworth | Community-based planning, health equity, and economic development |
| Lauren Linde | Affordable housing, urban policies/strategies for providing housing and services to the homeless, complete streets/street safety and transportation accessibility, the intersection of housing and public health |
| David Long | The interaction between transportation planning and land use planning, especially around large transportation infrastructure projects. Informal planning and development in developing countries. |
| Emmanuel Lopez | Economic development and housing rights; Deep ecology and the built environment; Climate mitigation and adaptation; Analytics and human behavior |
| José López | Environmental land use planning and policy, transportation and housing policy, economic development, planning for climate change impacts, general plans and zoning updates, water policy, renewable energy, and emission reductions. |
| Lily MacIver | Environmental and racial justice, impacts of air pollution on low-income communities of color, climate and health equity, community-led policy advocacy and planning, community-based participatory research, youth participation in planning, GIS based analysis. |
| Shazia Manji | Environmental justice and health disparities; health and racial equity analysis of social and environmental policy; land use policy and regulation; participatory planning and research methods; GIS |
| Emily Mann | Environmental planning; sustainability and climate change adaptation; food and water systems; environmental justice. |
| Brie Martin | Health benefits of urban green spaces and comprehensive public transit, environmental justice and Latin American Studies |
| Ian Martin | Transportation policy and planning, impact of public transportation networks on land use, integration of active transportation with public transportation, impact of ridesharing on mode choice and land use. |
| Laurel Mathews | Equitable climate adaptation, Public transportation access and use |
| Jon McCall | Environmental and social justice, climate resiliency, sustainable urban design and development, transportation planning and policy, participatory planning. |
| Shannon McCarthy | Transportation systems & public spaces as they relate to equitable access, public health, user behavior, and sustainability. Multimodal planning, active design, green space, public mental health, displacement/gentrification, affordable housing, participatory planning, and community-led development. |
| Zach McRae | Racial desegregation, community-led planning, grassroots power and movement building, anti-displacement, current consequence of historical planning practices, intersection of land use and water management, land use law, housing and economic development in marginalized communities in the united states of America and other countries, redistribution of wealth and community ownership |
| Ella Mitchell | Economic development, public space, healthy communities |
| Colleen Monahan | Racial Equity and Social Justice, Gentrification and Displacement, Food systems, Immigration and Social Mobility |
| Honora Montano | Climate adaptation in coastal communities, planning for urban green space, public health and equity, community engagement and education, media coverage of environmental issues |
| Josie Morgan | Urban Design, Disaster Preparedness & Resiliency, Climate Change, Land Use |
| Andrew Nelson | Transportation, Climate Change, Extreme Weather, Emergencies and Disasters |
| Yuju Park | Affordable housing, gentrification and displacement, mobility, urban design |
| Gabriela Picado-Aguilar | Transportation planning, land use, Transit Oriented Development and active transportantion and transit |
| Marta Polovin | Transportation and regional planning/policy; sustainable transit design and development; social and environmental justice; healthy cities; citizen activism |
| Maya Price | Transportation Planning, Climate Change, Environmental & Racial Justice, Gentrification & Displacement |
| Shivani Raina | Informality in the Global South, Asset Based Community Development, Participatory Planning & Design, Food Justice, Health & Built Environment, Community Innovation & Disaster Risk Reduction |
| Karl Reinhardt | Sustainable transportation infrastructure, electric vehicle integration, smart city development, natural disaster preparedness and resiliency planning, queer spaces and networks |
| Diego Rentería | Los Angeles, working-class neighborhoods, Latinos, development of openspace through river restoration, sidewalk and plaza design, environmental justice, regional governance |
| Ivana Rosas | Land Use & Urban Design, Accessibility & Transportation, Resiliency & Solar infrastructure |
| Severin Sáenz | Community-based planning, neighborhood cultural preservation, housing and economic equity, community informed data collection, geospatial analysis and data visualization |
| Viri Santoyo | Environmental Justice, CEQA/ city planning/ land use, community centered and participatory planning, city level climate adaptation/prevention initiatives, community resilience/ social justice, affordable housing and housing equity. |
| Travis Schneider | The merging of urban design and transportation planning into an architecture for people in motion (expressways, rail corridors, bridges, tunnels, boulevards, streets, trails, squares, stations and ports), in order to improve and expand the public realm. Also, the geographic, geometric, and technological forces that shape city form, land use distribution, and the layout of roads, rail, and infrastructure. |
| Rasheed Shabazz | Racial and environmental justice and equity; gentrification and displacement; cooperatives, land trusts, and informality; reparations; community-driven and youth participatory action research; GIS; Oakland, Richmond; intercommunalism and Black community development; Afrofuturism. |
| Noel Simpkin | International development, sustainable water management, and community-centered and participatory planning - with a focus on women's voices in planning |
| Cali Slepin | Mixed-income development, placekeeping, creative community engagement strategies, and anti-displacement policy |
| Beatriz Stambuk-Torres | Park and River restoration and implementation, community engagement |
| Jun William Tanabe | Urban design, public space, community development |
| Andrew Tate | Transportation planning; walkability in American cities; last mile transportation |
| Sharifa Taylor | Health in all policies; active engagement of low-income and communities of color in the advocacy, budgeting, and planning process; participatory action research; affordable housing policy and responses to gentrification and displacement. |
| Shushan Tesfuzigta | Waste Management, Public Services, African Urbanism |
| Keira Thompson | Urban Design, Land Use, Transit Oriented Communities, Community Development |
| Matthew Thompson | Transportation & transit service planning (especially for bus networks); transit oriented development; use of GIS, data science, & analytics in planning; multi-modal mobility options and neighborhood accessibility for all ages and abilities; planning for the elderly; LGBTQ spaces; value of social infrastructure |
| Amy Thomson | Transportation planning and equity, transportation access and equity, sustainable communities, economic development. |
| Julian Tucker | Community-centered and Participatory Planning, Urban Equity, Housing, Community and Economic Development, Sustainable Cities |
| Ben Ulrey | Gentrification, displacement, and development; density and multimodal transit; planning for every age; community engagement; suburbia; sustainable and resilient cities; placemaking |
| Eric Valchuis | Innovations in design, construction methods, and financing of private sector projects with a goal of making it easier to make neighborhoods that are more interesting, pleasant, and accessible. |
| Rafael Velazquez | Public health x city planning, housing policy, neighborhood revitalization planning, urban spatial segregation, health equity, participatory decision making, global south/north relations |
| Ashley Wagner | Environmental and social justice, health equity, structural determinants of health, sustainable sanitation and waste management, participatory planning |
| Leopold Wambersie | Transportation planning, sustainable urban design, and infrastructure systems. Examining all the above in an international context, and assuring equitable implementation. |
| Jessie Wesley | Food systems, community engagement, equity, and environmental health in urban communities. |
| Sadie Wilson | Urban sustainability, active transportation networks, urban bicycle infrastructure, planning for climate resiliency and adaption, the inequality in the effects of climate change and climate disasters and how to mitigate those impacts using physical and socioeconomic interventions, ecologically-driven design solutions |
| Lindsay Wong | Sustainable urban design, participatory planning, urban informality, and community development. |
| Logan Woodruff | Urban Design, Tactical Urban Interventions, Participatory Planning Practices, Democratic Design, Post-Industrial Adaptation |
| Dalia Rubiano Yedidia | Community-based planning to support grassroots neighborhood organizing, racial equity and social justice, development without displacement, affordable housing |
| Yuquan Zhou | Built Environment, Healthy Cities, Urban Planning |