Lisa K. Bates, Ph.D

Lisa K. Bates, PhD is Professor  in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning and Director of the Center for Urban Studies at Portland State University. Her scholarship focuses on housing and community development policy and planning.  Dr. Bates’ research attends to the legacies of discrimination in urban policy-making and elucidates policy design and implementation strategies that can dismantle institutional racism. In 2016 she was awarded the Dale Prize for scholarship on urban planning for community self-determination and racial justice.

Dr. Bates has engaged in research, planning, and policy formulation and evaluation  with a variety of government and nonprofit partners, including ACORN Housing Corporation, the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and the Portland Housing Bureau, the Urban League, Multnomah Youth Commission, PolicyLink, and the Portland Housing Center. Her work to describe gentrification and displacement in Portland has been widely cited and continues with current research on the impact of new transit investment on neighborhood housing.

Her B.A. is in Political Science from The George Washington University, and she holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining PSU’s faculty, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.