My entire professional life has been based on the belief that the built environment is important. I believe that the way spaces are designed impacts the way we use them and how we feel. That led me to get my Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin and to become a Licensed Architect.

I practiced architecture with Bade Stageberg Cox in Brooklyn, New York and Jensen Architects in San Francisco, California, leading several award-winning projects. Through my experience living in many different cities, I began to notice unintentional lifestyle changes, for better or worse, each time I moved, which got me thinking beyond individual buildings and toward the impact of public spaces and urban planning on behavior and health.

After another move, this time to Dallas, Texas, I became involved with the Mobility Advisory Committee and the Sidewalk Master Plan Committee for the City of Dallas. Through that work, I was struck by the disconnect between what cities say they want in planning documents – healthy, equitable cities – and day to day policies which don’t appear to support those goals.

Since then, I got a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from the University of Texas at Arlington, was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. DGE-1842487), and began my PhD studies in Population, Health and Place at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, where I am currently a PhD Candidate.

At USC, my research has focused especially on the public right-of-way, the area between property lines that includes streets and sidewalks. Streets make up 70-80% of urban public space. They’re everywhere, close to everyone, and under government control, offering possibly the single greatest opportunity to change cities for the better. Yet these spaces are currently given inadequate attention and funding, their quality varies greatly within and between cities, and policies do not always support health and equity goals.

Working collaboratively and across disciplines and departmental silos, I think that researchers, practitioners, and governments can do better for our cities.