Nader Afzalan

Raymond Lifchez Chair of Social Justice and Visiting Professor of Practice

EDUCATION

PhD, Urban Planning and Design, University of Colorado, Denver

MS, Urban and Regional planning, University of Tehran

BIOGRAPHY

Nader Afzalan currently serves as senior advisor at the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. He has more than 20 years of experience as a policymaker, researcher, educator, and community leader. His work brings together data analytics and innovative stakeholder engagement to address emerging challenges at the intersection of climate resilience, environmental justice, and urban technology.

Afzalan has held various leadership roles in public, non-profit, and private sectors. These include developing a new data unit at California Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency launching the first statewide data warehouse on homelessness in California, and serving as the chair of the American Planning Association- Technology Division.

Afzalan has led policy and program implementations across the US, China, Central America, and the Middle East. He has authored more than 30 articles and book chapters, published in high-impact journals, including the Journal of American Planning Association (JAPA), the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), Cities Journal, and the Journal of Urban Technology.

Afzalan holds a PhD in urban planning and design from the University of Colorado Denver and an MS in urban and regional planning from the University of Tehran.

Publications

Selected Publications

Meenar, M., Afzalan, N., & Hajrasouliha, A. (2022). Analyzing Lynch’s city imageability in the digital age. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 42(4), 611–623.

Meenar, M., & Afzalan, N. (2023). Urban planners’ roles, perceptions, needs, and concerns in smart city planning: a survey of US planners. International Planning Studies, 28(1), 21–36.

Afzalan, N., & Muller, B. (2018). Online participatory technologies: Opportunities and challenges for enriching participatory planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 84(2), 162–177.

Schweitzer, L. A.,& Afzalan, N. (2017). 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0: Four Reasons Why AICP Needs an Open Data Ethic. Journal of the American Planning Association, 83(2), 161–167.

Afzalan, N., Sanchez, T. W., & Evans-Cowley, J. (2017). Creating smarter cities: Considerations for selecting online participatory tools. Cities, 67, 21–30.

Afzalan, N., Evans-Cowley, J., & Mirzazad-Barijough, M. (2015). From big to little data for natural disaster recovery: How online and on-the-ground activities are connected. ISJLP, 11, 153.

Afzalan, N., & Evans-Cowley, J. (2015). Planning and social media: Facebook for planning at the neighbourhood scale. Planning Practice & Research, 30(3), 270–285.

Afzalan, N., & Muller, B. (2014). The role of social media in green infrastructure planning: A case study of neighborhood participation in park siting. Journal of Urban Technology, 21(3), 67–83.