LUSKIN - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Student Researcher
Aaron Tae is a rising third-year undergraduate student at UCLA pursuing a degree in Data Theory. Born in South Korea, Aaron moved to Los Angeles, California when he was five years old and has lived there since. He has experience working with low-income status and immigrant students during his volunteer tenure at a small academy in Koreatown called E-PLEX, while also being a person of low-income status and an immigrant himself. He has a passion for data analysis, data science, and data in general. He is excited to utilize and apply what he is passionate about to contribute to CNK's efforts in shedding light to how communities and neighborhoods of color are mistreated even in urban city planning processes.
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- Professor of Urban Planning
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- Associate Professor, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Program Officer, Resources Legacy Fund
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Vice President of Policy, the Greenlining Institute
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- Equity Advisor / Associate Professor
Professor Loukaitou-Sideris's research on sexual harassment in public and transit environments was instrumental in the passing of the SB 1161 in California against sexual harassment on transit, and she was recently invited and gave a briefing to the White House Gender Policy Council on this topic.
Andre Comandon is a post-doctoral scholar at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. His research focuses on issues of segregation and housing in international comparative perspective. He recently worked with the Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development and has written on Europe, China, Mexico, and South Africa. His most recent research focuses on segregation in the context of Los Angeles and the implications of housing stress for segregation. Andre earned a M.A. in Political Science, a Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a B.S. in Economics and International Studies from the University of Oregon.
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Program Director, ClimateWorks Foundation
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- Member of the Core Team
- Project Manager
- Project Manager at the Luskin Center for Innovation
Ariana Hernandez (she/her) is a project manager at the Luskin Center for Innovation. Her work focuses on addressing planning practices that lead to the inequitable distribution of municipal services like drinking water, wastewater, urban parks and electricity. Her research supports the center's energy, water and urban greening programs to further sustainable health outcomes.
Ariana's passions for environmental equity and community-driven planning guide her work and research experience. Prior to joining as a staff member, Ariana was a graduate student researcher for the center and served on the executive committee of the UCLA Graduate Student Water Resources Group. Ariana graduated with a Master of Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Environmental Analysis and Policy from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning with a minor in Community and Regional Development from the University of California, Davis.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor, Department of History and Institute for Society & Genetics
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- Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy
Briana Soriano is a GIS Analyst. She received her Bachelor's degree in Geography/Environmental Studies and minor in Geospatial Information Systems & Technologies from UCLA. Throughout her time here, she has continued to help under-resourced communities across Los Angeles. She currently employs her technical skills in local government for planning, engineering, and administrative functions. She aims to meaningfully expand her contributions using location intelligence for racial equity and social justice at CNK.
Bryzen Enzo Morales studies Public Affairs and Economics at UCLA. His academic and research interests lies at the intersection of urban planning, policy, and social welfare. Generally, he wants to explore different urban spatial structures, policies, and phenomenon and how it crafts uneven and unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and outcomes for many different disadvantaged communities. He is also working as a research assistant for the Digital Equity Anti-Oppression Lab (DEAO), contributing to literature reviews about the buffering role of social support, and its effect on the community mental health of Asian Americans and Black Americans.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma
C. Aujean Lee is an assistant professor in Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma. She received her PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA. Her work examines residential segregation and racial disparities in homeownership, community institutions, and wealth, with a focus on immigrant, Latino, and Asian communities. She also examines nonprofits in providing social protections to vulnerable communities in transitional or uncertain policy circumstances. Her work has been published in Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
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- Visiting Scholar, Associate Professor
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- Deputy Director
- Assistant Director at the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
Chhandara Pech is the Assistant Director at the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. His expertise is in spatial and statistical analysis. He has conducted extensive research on neighborhood change, gentrification, residential segregation, wealth/income inequality, and the foreclosure crisis. He was the lead data analyst for the Los Angeles component of the gentrification and displacement project. Chhandara earned his Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning, BA in Political Science, and has a certification in Geographic Information Systems from UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Student Researcher
Chloe Rios is a 4th year undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Geography. She also has a heavy background in biological and environmental classes. These subjects reflect her most passionate interests and she plans to combine that knowledge with her GIS skills to do meaningful work. As a longtime Long Beach resident she also hopes to use her school experiences and the skills she developed with CNK to help her community's spatial, environmental, and social issues.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Core Team
- Co - Executive Director
- Co - Executive Director of the Luskin Center for Innovation
Colleen Callahan (she/her) is co-executive director of the Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI). She previously served as founding deputy director for 12 years. As such, she has played an integral part in building the research center from the ground up. Collaborating with colleagues and civic partners, she helps ensure that LCI's research shapes environmental policy and other solutions. She spends much of her time strategizing, partnering, amplifying LCI's work, and leading or supporting research projects, communications, events, and more.
Colleen has launched several initiatives that connect researchers with civic partners, including LCI's Environmental Justice Field Fellowship Program. She has also facilitated several new research endeavors, particularly in the Climate Program. Through collaborative processes with civic partners, she helped guide the state's framework for California Climate Investments in disadvantaged communities and then facilitated evaluations of some of the state's most equity-centered climate action programs. In a recent project with movement leaders, she applied learnings from California and other state experiences to advise the federal government in their climate and clean energy investments to advance goals of racial, environmental and economic justice.
She has nearly 20 years of experience in social entrepreneurship, environmental policy, and urban planning. Previously, she directed UCLA's Leaders in Sustainability (LiS) Graduate Certificate Program, which benefits about 100 graduate students annually from 20 plus disciplines across campus. Before coming to UCLA, she co-founded the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, which has since folded into LiS, and established the L.A. office of the American Lung Association, later serving as their local lead on clean air policy campaigns.
She is a Switzer Environmental Fellow, recipient of the Neville Parker Award from the U.S. Council of University Transportation Centers, and co-recipient of two national awards from the American Planning Association. She holds a M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA and a B.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy from Occidental College, Phi Beta Kappa.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Core Team
- Operations Manager
- Operations Manager for the Luskin Center for Innovation
Constance Vance is the operations manager for the Luskin Center for Innovation. Constance manages the administrative processes of the Luskin Center for Innovation by providing support for proposal preparation, managing human resource needs, and coordinating and tracking expenditures to facilitate the Center's operation.
She holds a M.S. degree in Information Systems for California State University, Los Angeles, and a B.A. in Political Science from California State University, Northridge.
Corinne Odom was among the students who looked at cooling centers. She and her classmates spoke with staff members at libraries who were eager to help but frustrated that people in danger didn't seem to know these facilities were available.
"Visitor counts at cooling center locations last summer were low," Odom said. "So, really informing people that they're available is important, and that's something that CEMO is prioritizing."
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Recruitment & Admissions
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Founder of Civicas and Unicyn Civic Arts
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- Member of the Core Team
- Project Manager
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- Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development
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- Director, Research Administration
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- President, David Nahai Companies
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- Associate Professor Director, Leadership in Sustainability Certificate Program
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Founder and Principal, ArkSpring Consulting
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- Research Development Associate
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- Member of the Core Team
- Water Equity and Adaptation Policy Cooperative Extension Specialist
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- Member of the Core Team
- Project Manager
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- Director of Student Services
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- Executive Assistant to the Dean
- Staff Advisor, D3 Initiative / Executive Assistant to the Dean
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- Professor of Urban Planning
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- Professor and Henry Samueli Fellow, Civil and Environmental Engineering
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- Member of the Core Team
- Associate Project Manager of Water Equity Research
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- Member of the Core Team
- Co - Executive Director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation
- Director of the Human Right
- Research and Co - Executive Director / Director, Human Right to Water Solutions Lab
Gregory Pierce, co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, spoke to news outlets about California's water supply, safety, access and affordability. Around the country, water bills are rising as utilities upgrade aging infrastructure to meet standards for clean drinking water. New federal legislation would make permanent a pandemic-era program to help low-income families pay their bills and prevent shutoffs of water service. Investing in water infrastructure is an urgent priority, Pierce told the Los Angeles Times, adding, "We need to do more to support those who can't pay." Pierce also spoke to the Water Values podcast about water service and inequity in mobile home parks, and to CapRadio about below-average snowpack levels in California. Warmer storms this winter brought lots of rain but less snowfall - "a worrying trend to see coming to fruition," said Pierce, who directs UCLA's Human Right to Water Solutions Lab.
Gregory Pierce, co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, spoke to the Los Angeles Times about failing water systems in California, which raise the risk of serious health issues for about 1 million residents. Concern over the availability of clean drinking water has grown as drought and climate change threaten traditional sources. "It's a bit of a ticking time bomb," said Pierce, who directs the Human Right to Water Solutions Lab. Many water systems must take urgent steps or "they'll be out of compliance and be failing" under new regulations that will soon be in place. The article also cited Max Gomberg MPP '07, a consultant working with environmental justice advocates. "I think with enough resources, money, people and political will, the human right to water is absolutely achievable in California," Gomberg said. "But it's going to take all of that to a degree that has not been provided in the 11 years since the Human Right to Water Act was passed."
Gregory Pierce, director of the Human Right to Water Solutions Lab at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, participated in a discussion about the safety of tap water in California organized by KQED, the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California. Pierce, who received his master's and Ph.D. degrees from UCLA Luskin Urban Planning, spoke about findings in a recent study conducted in cooperation with the University of Texas at Austin that found social factors - such as low population density, high housing vacancy, disability and race - can have a stronger influence than median household income on whether a community's municipal water supply is more likely to have health-based water-quality violations.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean for Operations and Administration
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- California State Senator Emeritus and Director, USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy
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- Member of the Core Team
- Events and Operations Coordinator
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- Founding Director of LCI and Dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs ( UT Austin )
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- Member of the Core Team
- Project Director
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- Director of Undergraduate Administration and Experiential Learning
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- Adjunct Assistant Professor, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Executive Director, Climate Resolve
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- Undergraduate Representative
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- Director of Alumni Engagement
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- Director of Student Affairs
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- Director, Office of Student Affairs & Alumni Relations
- STUDENT AFFAIRS & ALUMNI RELATIONS
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- Associate Professor of Urban Planning
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- Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Health Sciences
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- Social Welfare Representative
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- Member of the Core Team
- Associate Project Manager of Energy Equity Research
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- Executive Director of Communications
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- Assistant Professor of Urban Planning
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- Communications Consultant
- Member of the Core Team
- Principal
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- Urban Planning Representative
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- Assistant Director of Communications
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- President, Los Angeles Business Council
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Independent Consultant on Water Affordability and Resilience
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- Undergraduate Student Researcher
McKenna Giannos is a third year Environmental Science Major from Leesburg, Virginia pursuing minors in Geography/Environmental Studies and GIS & Technology at UCLA. She has an interest in pursuing spatial data research and using GIS to address complex social and environmental injustices. McKenna has participated in independent research studying the sustainability of native plant species on UCLA's campus and hopes to continue working on environmental research and GIS in her future.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Core Team
- Vice Chair
- Faculty Director
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- President, Scope Industries
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student Researcher
- Researcher at the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
Mia Lewis is a graduate student researcher at the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. She holds a BS in Geography from Florida State University and is currently pursuing a Master of Urban Planning at UCLA. She is most interested in studying the intersections of technology, equity, and transportation planning in the hope of finding ways to create more accessible and sustainable transportation systems.
Job Titles:
- Faculty Advisor, D3 Initiative
Miguel Miguel delivers findings from the Comprehensive Project's final report. Miguel, a San Fernando Valley resident who has seen the impact of dangerously high temperatures on communities without adequate heat protection, said, "It was really important for me to be involved and to bring lived experience and emotional compassion into this [research]." Photo by Les Dunseith
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Partner, PwC
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- Assistant Director of Student Support Services
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- Assistant Director of Career Services
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Student Researcher
Naya Lee is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Political Science. She holds an interest in the subject of law and hopes to pursue a career in the legal field. She has a background in journalism, participating in the LA Vanguard publishing articles regarding social justice. She's also interested in pursuing further research in topics surrounding politics including injustices in the American political system and environmental policy.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Researcher ( Based at the University of Oxford )
- Water Engineering and Policy Expert
Nicholas Chow is a water engineering and policy expert pursuing his Ph.D. on global infrastructure resilience to climate hazards. While encompassing other infrastructure sectors like energy, transport, and communication, his work at the University of Oxford focuses on water system strategy, governance, policy, and regulation.
Prior to his Ph.D. studies, Nicholas worked as a water engineering project manager for the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation on the interaction between water and energy systems and facets of the Human Right to Water. Nicholas strives to build on the OneWater principles of developing healthier and more sustainable water management practices-environmentally, economically and socially.
As a water resource and environmental engineer by training, Nicholas is especially equipped to integrate technical understanding and experience into his research, as well as translate these into applied forms. Nicholas has worked with universities across the country as well as with organizations such as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). His research in biogeochemistry and oceanography culminated in a recent publication in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Prior to working for the Luskin Center for Innovation, Nicholas earned his M.S. degree from UCLA in civil and environmental engineering, with a focus in water. He also holds a B.A. in geology with a focus in chemistry from Whitman College in Washington state.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Editor
- Member of the Core Team
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- DEVELOPMENT
- Senior Executive Director of External Relations
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- Associate Director of Admissions & Recruitment
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- Human Resources Director
- HUMAN RESOURCES
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- Director
- Director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
- Director of the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
- Professor
- Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare and Asian American Studies
Professor Ong has done research on the labor market status of minorities and immigrants, displaced high-tech workers, work and spatial/transportation mismatch, and environmental justice. He is currently engaged in several projects, including an analysis of the relationship between sustainability and equity, the racial wealth gap, and the role of urban structures on the reproduction of inequality.
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- Academic Program Coordinator
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- Member of the Core Team
- Project Director
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- Public Policy Representative
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- Associate
- Member of the Core Team
- Project Manager
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- Associate Director of Undergraduate Education
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Philanthropist
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- Senior Director of Development
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- Academic Program Coordinator
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- Chief Financial Officer
- FINANCIAL SERVICES
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- Member of the Advisory Board
- Senior Vice President, the Better World Group
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- Member of the Core Team
- Associate Project Manager of Climate Action Research
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- Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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- Visiting Scholar, Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainability
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- Member of the Advisory Board
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- Associate Director of Admissions & Recruitment
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- Project Director
- Affiliate Researcher
- Director of Research, Latino Politics & Policy Institute
Silvia Gonzalez (Jimenez) is a project director for community-based and environmental equity at the Luskin Center for Innovation. Previously, Silvia worked as the founding assistant director at the CNK. She continues to conduct research with CNK as the project manager for MovementHub.org and serves as an expert with the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative. She has worked extensively, as a researcher and consultant with nonprofit, community-based, and government organizations on projects related to neighborhood change and gentrification, anti-displacement policies, environmental equity, and climate planning. Her research focuses on the implications of place and the urban spatial structure on socioeconomic inequality and environmental health. She holds a BA in Geography/Environmental Studies and a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus on Economic Development from UCLA, and a PhD in Urban Planning also from UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Manager ( Faculty, AP, and Finance )
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- Media Relations Manager & Principal Writer
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- Director of the UCLA California Center for Sustainable Communities
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- Director of Student Services
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- Associate Director of Stewardship
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- Member of the Core Team
- Associate Director and Professor of Urban Planning and Geography
- Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Point Person for the Luskin Center for Innovation
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- Chairman
- Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Political Science
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- Associate Director of Development
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- Assistant Professor of Economics