I am a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Director of the PhD program in Geography, Planning, and Design, and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Community Collaborative Research Center at the University of Colorado Denver.

My research explores how planners, designers, and communities can work together to create more socially and environmentally just places. I am particularly interested in the relationship between social equity and the built environment, and my recent work examines gentrification, homelessness, and racial discrimination in U.S. cities.

From 2019-22, I was a Chancellor’s Urban Engaged Scholar, which recognizes “outstanding contributions to the Denver metro region through community-engaged scholarship.” In 2023, I served a term as a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Specialist at the Universidad de Chile, and in 2015-16 was a Fulbright Scholar at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre. I was Chair of the Department of Planning and Design from 2012-15 and Director of the Master of Urban Design program from 2008-15.

I received my PhD in Planning and Public Policy from Rutgers University, an MSc in Development and Planning from the Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) at University College London, and a BA in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. I am also an active volunteer for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, Miracle Messages, and Children’s Hospital Colorado, and a substitute teacher at Denver Language School.