Bernadette Baird-Zars, Ph.D., joined the Bloustein School in January 2023. Prior to Rutgers, she was a post-doctoral scholar in inclusive urbanism and governance focused on flooding adaptation and post-disaster recovery at Columbia University. Her work examines implementation in land use planning, in particular under transition and uncertainty. Using institutional analyses and quantitative data, her recent research identifies patterns of action and practice of municipal permitting and review in spaces of socio-ecological precarity in peri-urban areas of Mexico. She co-edited and authored chapters of “Zoning: a Guide for 21st Century Planning” (Routledge 2020), as well as articles on zoning relief and local governance in the Arab world in the Journal of Planning Education and Research and Middle East Law and Governance. Prior to academia, Dr. Baird-Zars worked for over a decade with development banks, non-profits and public entities on affordable housing and planning initiatives across Latin America, the Middle East and the United States, and as local staff for several years in Aleppo, Syria. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from Columbia University, a Master of City Planning from MIT, and an honors BA from Swarthmore College.
Research Interests
- Land use
- Local government
- Implementation and enforcement
- Transition and uncertainty
- Environmental justice
- Institutional analysis
- Action/project-based learning
- Longitudinal data
- Planning ethics and theory
Undergraduate Courses
- Introduction to Urban Studies
- Methods of Planning Analysis