I am an Associate Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University, where I lead the Planning for Urban Resilience Lab. I am also a Senior Global Futures Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, a faculty affiliate of the Urban Climate Research Center, and CAP-LTER. 

My research, at the intersection of urban geography and planning, tackles the challenge of how to make cities more resilient to climate change and other hazards. I currently focus on three interrelated topics: 

• 1. Conceptualizations of urban resilience

  2. Urban resilience governance and planning in a changing climate (with a particular focus on heat and flooding)

  3. Urban green infrastructure

I have over 50 publications in academic journals including Nature, Landscape and Urban Planning, Urban Geography, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Journal of the American Planning Association, Environmental Research Letters, and Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (See the full list in Google Scholar) and featured in the media. Some of my federally-funded projects have included NSF grants on flood resilience, DOE-funded work on urban climate resilience, NOAA-funded projects on extreme heat resilience, and research on green infrastructure planning, including an NSF NCAR Innovator fellowhip. I spent my sabbatical in 2024 in Germany with support from a Humboldt Fellowship.

I received my Ph.D. from the School of Natural Resources and Environment (now the School for Environment and Sustainability) at the University of Michigan. I also have a master’s in international development studies from the University of Amsterdam and a bachelor’s in political science and history from the University of Florida.