Urban and Regional Planning

Professor Yingling Fan and PhD candidate Noah Wexler completed this research report, "The Effects of Highway Improvement Projects on Nearby Business Activity," for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). They analyzed how state-funded highway improvement projects in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area affected nearby businesses,

Professor Nichola Lowe co-authored the report, “Centering Workers and Advancing Business Needs: Nine Case Studies of Partnerships in the Manufacturing Sector."

Humphrey School Dean Nisha Botchwey has been selected as a 2024 Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). She also received the 2024 Margarita McCoy Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP).

Associate Dean Ryan Allen and Gregg Colburn (PhD ‘17) co-authored a paper, “Cumulative housing cost burden exposures and disadvantages to children’s well-being and health,” published in Social Science Research.

Associate Professor Bonnie Keeler is a co-author of a new study, "The impacts of racially discriminatory housing policies on the distribution of intra-urban heat and tree canopy: A comparison of racial covenants and redlining in Minneapolis, MN," published recently in Landscape and Urban Planning.

Professor Jason Cao has been named associate editor of two transportation related journals.

Recent research led by Associate Dean Ryan Allen examines one of the more effective tools for ensuring affordable housing in rural areas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Section 515 program.

Dean Nisha Botchwey co-authored the introduction to a special issue of the Journal of the American Planning Association, “Community Design and Revitalization to Promote Health: The Track Record After 20 Years.” 

Humphrey School PhD candidate Rebecca Walker is lead author of the study, “Making the City of Lakes: Whiteness, Nature, and Urban Development in Minneapolis,” which was published recently in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 

Professor Jason Cao and Tao Tao (PhD '22), currently a postdoc researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, published the paper, “Exploring nonlinear and collective influences of regional and local built environment characteristics on travel distances by mode,” in the Journal of Transport Geography. This work was funded by the University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.