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.

In both 2024 and 2025, I was named one of the most highly-cited researchers in the world in a study by Stanford University and Elsevier. 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. From 2019-22, I was a Chancellor’s Urban Engaged Scholar, which recognizes “outstanding contributions to the Denver metro region through community-engaged scholarship.” 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, National Brain Tumor Society, and Children’s Hospital Colorado, a board member of the Friends of Denver East Baseball, and an (infrequent) substitute teacher at Denver Language School.