In 2023 we released a study of the impacts of Pogo Park on community health & safety in Richmond, CA. We analyzed community survey data collected from the same households in 2009 (before park redevelopment) and in 2019 (after redevelopment).  For those responding after the park redevelopment, we found significant reductions in fear of violence and measures of stress compared to 2009.  We also found significant improvements in reported  social connections, trust among neighbors self rated health.

Saving Black Lives. In an evaluation of the Advance Peace Program in Fresno,  Richmond & Sacramento, California, we found a 5–52% decrease in gun homicides during the 2020/2021 period compared to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic 2018/2019 period. We also found a 24–83% reduction in gun homicides in census tracts with > 20% Black populations in Sacramento and Stockton during the 2020/2021 period compared to the 2018/2019 period.

With the Muungano Alliance, we completed the Integrated Mukuru Special Planning Area (SPA) summary report. This was one of the largest ever informal settlement upgrading processes. The plan will transform and improve the lives of almost half a million Nairobi residents. The participatory planning process has been recognized as a model for community-lead informal settlement upgrading.

May 2022, new publication in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, Water and sanitation for all: Citizen science, health equity, and urban climate justice.

Recognized by Sage as one of world’s Key Thinkers on Cities. Profiled as an innovator in urban scholarship whose ideas have shaped the way cities around the world are understood, researched, debated and acted upon. I am acknowledged alongside urban scholars such as Jane Jacobs, Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells and David Harvey.

Cities For Life won the 2022 EDRA Great Places Book Award. An excerpt from the award committee reads: “Focusing on racism, health, and urban trauma, this book presents a timely and inspiring account of innovative programs in three cities that speak to the structural violence against marginalized communities, both historically and today. Through three case studies, in Richmond, California, Medellín, Columbia, and Nairobi, Kenya, the book makes a compelling case for the ecological model of health, the engagement of citizens, and the healing power of placemaking.”

In Cities for Life: How Communities Can Recover from Trauma and Rebuild for Health (Publication Date: November 16, 2021), public health expert Jason Corburn shows how cities can promote the health and healing of all of their residents. He draws lessons from three cities already doing this work: Richmond, California; Medellín, Colombia; and Nairobi, Kenya. Based on his work with citizens, activists, and decision-makers in these cities over a ten-year period, Corburn shows how any community can rebuild their social institutions, practices, and policies to be more focused on healing and health.