Blumenberg Named Urban Planning Chair

Urban Planning professor Evelyn Blumenberg has been named chair of the department, Dean Gilliam announced today.

Blumenberg, a UCLA Luskin alumna who has been a professor in the department since 1998, assumes the role July 1. She succeeds Lois Takahashi.

A scholar of the effects of urban structure, Blumenberg’s research focuses on the impacts of spatial location of residents, employers and services on economic outcomes, especially for low-wage workers. She teaches courses planning history and theory, urban poverty, transportation and economic development, and urban policy.

Blumenberg has held numerous leadership roles in her time at UCLA Luskin. She has served as Urban Planning’s vice chair and chair of staffing, and has directed the department’s doctoral program. Additionally, she has been on the school’s Faculty Executive Committee, strategic planning committee and social justice ad hoc committee, and she has served on the university’s Graduate Council for the last two years.

“I have been very impressed by Evy’s deep commitment to her students, her department and our school,” Dean Gilliam said in announcing the appointment. “I look forward to working with her as she takes on the leadership of the Urban Planning Department.”