Core Staff
Teresa Córdova, Ph.D.
Director and Professor
Yibing Li
Associate Director for Business and Finance
Timothy O. Imeokparia, Ph.D., AICP
Associate Director of Research and Planning
Thea Crum
Associate Director of Neighborhoods Initiative
Matthew Wilson, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Economic & Workforce Development
Juan González
Senior Fellow, Great Cities Institute
Timothy Johnson, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow, Great Cities Institute
Kathleen Yang-Clayton, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow, Great Cities Institute
Jack Rocha
Community Development Planner
Jim Lewis, Ph.D.
Senior Research Specialist
Rob Paral
Senior Research Specialist
Elham Pilegar
Research Specialist
David Segovia
Visiting Research Specialist
Andrea Angulo
Administrative Assistant
Christiana Kinder
Office Manager
Graduate Research Assistants
Hyun-Seok (Edward) Cheon
Communication and Design Lead, Great Cities Institute
Ph.D. Student at Jane Addams College of Social Work, UIC
Mari Villa
Master’s Student in Urban Planning and Policy, UIC
Samantha Sepulveda Santos
Master’s Student in Public Policy, UIC
Gathafi Gooja
Master’s Student in Public Policy, UIC
Kyle McFarren
Master’s Student in Civic Analytics, UIC
Associates
Diego Aulestia
Senior Associate
Head of the Human Settlements Unit of CEPAL, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the WTO
Lucas McGranahan, Ph.D.
Senior Research Specialist
Research Fellows
Ahmed Rachid (AR) El-Khattabi, Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Associate Director for Research and Data at the Environmental Finance Center (EFC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Former ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow and Economist in the Water Economics Center, US Environmental Protection Agency – Office of Water
Sofia Dermisi, Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Victor L. Lyon and Alvin J. Wolff Endowed Professor in Real Estate, University of Washington, Seattle
Chair of the Interdisciplinary Group for Real Estate (IGRE), University of Washington, Seattle
Faculty Fellows
John Hagedorn, Ph.D.
James J. Stukel Faculty Fellow, Great Cities Institute
Professor Emeritus, Criminology, Law, and Justice
Rachel Havrelock, Ph.D.
Founder and Director, UIC Freshwater Lab
Professor, English
Allyson Holbrook, Ph.D.
Professor, Public Policy, Management, and Analytics
Kelly LaRoux, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Public Policy, Management, and Analytics
Kathryn Bocanegra, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work
Krishna R. Reddy, Ph.D.
Professor, Civil Environmental Engineering
Director of Sustainable Engineering Research Laboratory
Director of the Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory
Former Faculty Fellows
Joshua Drucker, Ph.D., AICP
Associate Professor, Urban Planning and Policy
Rebecca Hendrick, Ph.D.
Professor, Public Administration
Martin Jaffe, Ph.D.
Associate Professor (Retired), Urban Planning and Policy
Michele A Kelley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Emerita, Community Health Sciences
Michael Pagano, Ph.D., Senior Fellow
Former Dean, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs
Professor, Public Administration
Nik Theodore, Ph.D., Senior Fellow
Professor, Urban Planning and Policy
David Perry, Ph.D., Senior Fellow
Professor Emeritus, Urban Planning and Policy
Philip Ashton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Urban Planning and Policy
Rachel Weber, Ph.D.
Professor, Urban Planning and Policy
Sanjeev Vidyarthi, Ph.D., Senior Fellow
Professor, Urban Planning and Policy
Director, Master of City Design Program
Stacey Sutton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Urban Planning and Policy
Co-Director, Solidarity Economy Research, Policy & Law Project
Tingwei Zhang, Ph.D., Senior Fellow
Professor (Retired), Urban Planning and Policy