Faculty

Regular Faculty

Martha Matsuoka

Martha Matsuoka, Chair

Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy; Executive Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute
A.B., ÈÕ±¾ÎÞÂë; M.C.P., UC Berkeley Ph.D., UCLA
Martha Matsuoka ’83 focuses her teaching and research on community-based organizing and social movements for environmental justice, particularly in planning and policy. 
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Claire Cahen

Claire Cahen

Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., Pomona College; M.Phil, Ph.D., Graduate Center, CUNY, New York
Claire Cahen is an urbanist, researcher and educator who studies municipal austerity and public sector union renewal.
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Professor Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics; Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy, Emeritus (1993-2025)
B.A., Syracuse University M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago
Peter Dreier has been involved in urban policy as a scholar, government official, reporter, and advocate for 30 years.
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Karla Pena

Karla Peña

Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., California State University Northridge; M.S., University of Michigan; M.S., Ph.D., Cornell University
Karla Peña's teaching and research is centered on social movements and the political ecology of natural resource extraction and environmental change, from a local and global perspective.
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Professor James Sadd

James Sadd

Professor, Environmental Science
B.S., University of Southern California; M.S., University of Texas; Ph.D., University of South Carolina
Dr. Sadd teaches courses in Geographic Information Systems in which students evaluate many types of information using spatial analysis and statistical tools.
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Bhavna Shamasunder

Bhavna Shamasunder

Associate Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy
B.S./B.A., UC San Diego; M.ES., Yale University; Ph.D., UC Berkeley
Bhavna Shamasunder teaches and conducts research at the intersection of environmental health & justice with a focus on inequalities in chemical exposures faced by low-income communities and communities of color who live and work in urban and/or industrial environments.
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Madeline Wander

Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A. ÈÕ±¾ÎÞÂë; M.U.R.P., Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles
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Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Alexandra Boesel

Alexandra Boesel

Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A. Wesleyan University; M.Sc. University of Calgary
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Sharon Cech

Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., Bard College; M.A., UCLA
Sharon Cech (she/her) is a Program Director at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at ÈÕ±¾ÎÞÂë (UEPI). With over a decade of experience working to advance farm to school, farmers…
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Headshot of Rick Cole

Rick Cole

Visiting Assistant Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy
A.B., ÈÕ±¾ÎÞÂë; M.S., Columbia University
Rick Cole is the chief deputy controller for the City of Los Angeles overseeing payroll, accounting, and auditing. He has been involved in homelessness policy since he organized California's first…
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Photo of Jordanne Dervaes holding a duck

Jordanne Dervaes

Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy
I’m Jordanne Dervaes, a passionate educator, urban farmer, entrepreneur and animal rescuer with a mission to inspire and empower others through sustainable living, regenerative practices, and…
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Headshot of Hector (Teto) Huezo

Hector Huezo

Visiting Instructor
B.S. California State University, Los Angeles; M.A. California State University, Northridge
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Rosa Romero

Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; M.Ed., University of Hawaii, Manoa
Rosa Romero is a Program Director at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at ÈÕ±¾ÎÞÂë. Rosa specializes in Farm to Preschool, Garden and Health curriculum development and…
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Affiliated Faculty

Professor Regina Freer

Regina Freer

Professor, Politics
B.A., UC Berkeley; Ph.D., University of Michigan
Regina Freer’s research and teaching interests include race and politics, demographic change, urban politics, and the intersection of all three in Los Angeles.
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Michael W. Murphy

Michael W. Murphy

Associate Professor, Black Studies
B.A., University of San Diego; M.A., Ph.D, Brown University
Professor Murphy’s research and teaching emphasizes anticolonial and environmental approaches to sociological thought. 
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Emeriti/ae Faculty

Professor Peter Dreier
Peter Dreier
E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics; Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy, Emeritus (1993-2025)
Urban & Environmental Policy
Politics
(323) 259-2913
dreier@oxy.edu

Peter Dreier has been involved in urban policy as a scholar, government official, reporter, and advocate for 30 years.

Bob Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb
Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy, Emeritus (1997-2025)
Urban & Environmental Policy
gottlieb@oxy.edu

Robert Gottlieb’s research focus is on environmental and food justice, care politics, power and inequality, resource politics, alternative transportation, place-based development, global cities, and the infrastructure of everyday life.  He is the author of numerous publications, including fourteen...

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