People
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Evelyn Blumenberg | Director | Email | (310) 903-3305
Read the UCLA Blueprint profile on Professor Blumenberg’s work on homelessness What do you do here at UCLA? What’s your connection to Los Angeles? Can you share a secret about living in LA? Besides working at UCLA, what’s your LA dream job? |
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Michael Lens | Associate Faculty Director | Email | (917) 334-4516
Read the UCLA Blueprint profile on Professor Lens’s work on housing discrimination and crime What do you do here at UCLA? What’s your favorite LA-themed movie, TV show, or song? Do you have a favorite public transit line? Besides working at UCLA, what’s your LA dream job? |
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Madeline Brozen | Deputy Director | Email | (424) 255-8737 What do you do here at UCLA? What’s your connection to Los Angeles? How do you bide your time in traffic? |
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Claudia Bustamante | Communications Manager | Email | (424) 625-8468 What do you do here at UCLA? What’s your connection to Los Angeles? What’s your favorite LA-themed movie, TV show or song? |
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Shane Phillips | Housing Initiative Project Manager | Email | (424) 209-8750 What do you do here at UCLA? What’s your connection to Los Angeles? Can you share a secret about living in LA? |
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Whitney Willis | Operations Manager | Email | (310) 562-7356 What do you do here at UCLA? Can you share a secret about living in LA? What’s your favorite LA-themed movie, TV show, or song? |
Hanna Barlow | Operations Assistant
Hanna is a junior at UCLA studying human biology and society.
Jayne Vidheecharoen | Design Assistant
Jayne is a second-year Master of Urban Planning graduate student.
Angela Wu | Web Assistant
Angela is a recent UCLA graduate.
Alyssa Zhu | Design Assistant
Alyssa is a junior at UCLA studying design media arts.
J.R. DeShazo
Director, Luskin Center for Innovation; Professor of Public Policy, Urban Planning, and Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Lené Levy-Storms
Associate Professor, Departments of Social Welfare and Medicine/Geriatrics
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Robin Liggett
Professor Emeritus, Urban Planning
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Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris
Professor, Urban Planning
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Michael Manville
Associate Professor, Urban Planning
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Paavo Monkkonen
Associate Professor, Urban Planning and Public Policy
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Read the UCLA Blueprint profile of Professor Monkkonen’s work on single-family zoning
Vinit Mukhija
Department Chair, Professor, Urban Planning
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Paul Ong
Director, Center for Neighborhood Knowledge; Professor Emeritus, Urban Planning and Social Welfare
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Taner Osman
Lecturer, Urban Planning
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Meredith Phillips
Chair, Undergraduate Affairs; Associate Professor, Public Policy and Sociology
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Donald Shoup
Distinguished Research Professor, Urban Planning
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Brian D. Taylor
Director, ITS; Professor, Urban Planning
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![]() Executive Director,Southern California Association of Governments Kome Ajise is the new executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments. He has three decades of experience in regional planning and transportation, most recently as the director of planning at SCAG. Prior to working at SCAG, Ajise was the chief deputy director at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where he was responsible for internal operations, overseeing more than 18,000 employees and a budget in excess of $1.1 billion. Previously, he was Caltrans’ deputy director of planning and modal programs and oversaw the Aeronautics, Mass Transportation, Rail, Transportation Planning, Local Assistance, and Research Innovation and System Information Divisions. Ajise has a bachelor’s degree in geography and regional planning from the University of Benin, Nigeria, and a master’s in city and regional planning from California State University, Fresno. |
![]() CEO and Founder, Estolano AdvisorsCecilia V. Estolano is an expert in sustainable economic development and urban revitalization. The many projects she has directed as co-founder of ELP Advisors include advising local governments, nonprofits, and foundations on redevelopment dissolution and economic revitalization, overseeing research on green infrastructure and job creation in Philadelphia, and managing complex multi-stakeholder processes. She serves as vice president of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors and sits on the University of California Board of Regents and the boards of directors of Manufacturing Renaissance and the National Employment Law Project. Estolano has taught urban planning at UCLA and UC Berkeley. She is a graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from UCLA, along with a bachelor’s degree in social studies with honors from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges. |
![]() Director,Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University Bill Fulton was the planning director of San Diego from June 2013 to October 2014. Fulton served as mayor of the City of Ventura from 2009 to 2011 and is an author, urban planner, professor, and senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, where he teaches land use policy and smart growth. He is a leading advocate of the smart growth movement in urban planning and was named to Planetizen’s list of Top 100 Urban Thinkers. Fulton is best known as a commentator and expert on urban planning in California and has written hundreds of articles on the topic, including more than 40 Sunday opinion pieces in the Los Angeles Times between 1982 and 2009. He is the author of several books, including “Guide to California Planning” — the standard textbook on urban planning in California. |
![]() Former Planning Director,City of Los Angeles Gail Goldberg, FAICP, is the former executive director of the Urban Land Institute Los Angeles and the former planning director of Los Angeles and San Diego. In Los Angeles, she was responsible for organizing and directing the policies and activities of the city’s planning department, including the development, maintenance and implementation of all elements of the city’s general plan as well as a range of other special zoning plans. In San Diego, she oversaw a planning process to update the city’s 20-year-old general plan; this “City of Villages” vision and strategy became an international model for urban revitalization. She served as an Urban Land Institute trustee, chair of the San Diego/Tijuana ULI District Council, and on the statewide coordinating committee for ULI’s California Smart Growth Initiative. Goldberg is a native Californian and holds a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and planning from UC San Diego. |
![]() President, California Community Reinvestment CorporationMary Kaiser is a financial services executive, specializing in marketing, lending, and integrating the delivery of financial products and services. She began her career in 1975 at First Interstate Bank and in 1987 she joined the Bank of A. Levy, a 100-year-old bank in Ventura County, as its executive vice president and chief operating officer. Kaiser currently serves on the CHC board of directors and the Stabilization Trust REO Capital Fund Loan Committee. She has also served as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s economic advisory council among many other organizations and committees. Kaiser received a Master of Business Administration from California Lutheran University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from San Diego State University. |
![]() Director of Planning Policy and Development, Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric GarcettiNick Maricich is the director of planning policy and development in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In |