Kara Showalter Luckey
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Kara is an urban planner and engineer who will earn her PhD in Planning and Design at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning in May 2017. She is also a lecturer in the university’s School of Public Affairs where she teaches 'Research and Analytical Methods' and 'Readings in Community Planning and Social Justice' to graduate students enrolled in the on-line Masters's of Public Administration program.
Kara’s research centers broadly on the role of urban infrastructure in community and economic development, with particular expertise in the intersection between transportation planning, housing policy, and social justice. Her dissertation work (successfully defended in December 2016) employs statistical models that control for spatial dependence to explore the relationship between housing affordability and transit accessibility in eight U.S. metropolitan areas (click here for an abstract). In addition to expertise in advanced statistical techniques, Kara has extensive experience with geospatial analysis and qualitative methods.
After earning a B.S. in Civil Engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, Kara worked as a practitioner for over seven years in a range of contexts including transit and transportation planning, waterfront redevelopment, and planning for public and federal lands. Her PhD work has been supported through grants from the National Science Foundation through the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program, as well as the U.S. Department of Transportation Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship.
After living in Colorado for over a decade, Kara recently moved back to her hometown of Seattle, Washington with her husband, 3-year old son, and 1-year old daughter. When not thinking about and researching urban policy, Kara enjoys braving the rain with her family to explore all the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
Kara’s research centers broadly on the role of urban infrastructure in community and economic development, with particular expertise in the intersection between transportation planning, housing policy, and social justice. Her dissertation work (successfully defended in December 2016) employs statistical models that control for spatial dependence to explore the relationship between housing affordability and transit accessibility in eight U.S. metropolitan areas (click here for an abstract). In addition to expertise in advanced statistical techniques, Kara has extensive experience with geospatial analysis and qualitative methods.
After earning a B.S. in Civil Engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, Kara worked as a practitioner for over seven years in a range of contexts including transit and transportation planning, waterfront redevelopment, and planning for public and federal lands. Her PhD work has been supported through grants from the National Science Foundation through the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program, as well as the U.S. Department of Transportation Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship.
After living in Colorado for over a decade, Kara recently moved back to her hometown of Seattle, Washington with her husband, 3-year old son, and 1-year old daughter. When not thinking about and researching urban policy, Kara enjoys braving the rain with her family to explore all the Pacific Northwest has to offer.